Illumina & Guardant Settle Trade Secret Lawsuit

Two companies involved in early cancer detection have settled a lawsuit involving the theft of trade secrets, according to a report from Reuters.

San Diego, CA-based Illumina claimed that Guardant Health’s founders Helmy Eltoukhy and AmirAli Talasaz, who both once worked at Illumina, took confidential documents from Illumina related to its gene-sequencing technology. The lawsuit also alleged the founders used secrets to obtain at least 35 patents.

In a release, Guardant said the have extended a long-standing commercial relationship by agreeing to collaborate on the sharing of specimen samples to advance cancer research, and by entering into a new long-term purchase and supply commitment.

“Both companies are deeply committed to our collaboration to help patients and conquer cancer,” Chris Freeman, Guardant CCO said in a release. “This agreement supports getting our transformative technologies to even more patients globally while strengthening our long-standing and valued partnership with Illumina.”

According to a report from Reuters, Illumina said in a statement that it was pleased with the settlement and looks forward to the companies' "continued collaboration in bringing innovative precision oncology technologies to market."

Illumina has dominated medtech headlines consistently for the past few years, stemming from its $8 billion acquisition of Grail, an early cancer detection firm. The deal came under scrutiny from anti-trust regulators.

The decision set off a wild chain of events that caused a proxy battle and Illumina’s CEO stepping down.