Illumina, the main producer of gene-sequencing machines, announced Sunday that it will promote Grail, a most cancers check developer that it bought for $7.1 billion in 2021.

The transfer got here two days after Illumina misplaced its case in a federal appeals court docket, which largely upheld a Federal Commerce Fee ruling that Illumina ought to unwind its take care of Grail on antitrust grounds.

The case was seen by antitrust consultants as a check of regulators’ efforts to cease large corporations from shopping for fledgling innovators.

The deal had additionally confronted a roadblock in Europe. In September 2022, the European Union mentioned it will block the acquisition. Illumina, based mostly in San Diego, beforehand acknowledged publicly that if it was unsuccessful with appeals in both jurisdiction, it will divest the start-up.

“We’re dedicated to an expeditious divestiture of Grail in a way that permits its expertise to proceed benefiting sufferers,” Illumina’s chief govt, Jacob Thaysen, mentioned in a press release. “The administration staff and I proceed to concentrate on our core enterprise and supporting our clients. I’m assured in Illumina’s alternatives and our long-term success.”

Grail, which has created expertise for the early detection of some cancers, started as a analysis undertaking inside Illumina. It was spun out as a separate firm in 2016. Whereas it doesn’t compete with Illumina in gene sequencing, it does use gene sequencing in its blood checks for most cancers.

Illumina went ahead with buying Grail, regardless of an early grievance from the F.T.C., which argued that the acquisition would diminish innovation within the U.S. market and enhance costs. Nonetheless, Illumina was assured it will win in court docket.

The sale of Grail can be executed via a third-party sale or a capital market transaction, the corporate mentioned, with a aim of finalizing the deal by the top of the second quarter subsequent yr.

Now that the fee’s problem to the deal has been upheld in court docket, different tech giants and dominant corporations of their respective fields would possibly see their acquisition makes an attempt curbed by the company. Since taking workplace in 2021, Lina Khan, the F.T.C. chair, has taken a extra aggressive stance towards mergers that she believes could also be detrimental to the economic system.