The dealmaking column is a survey of recent transactions, including strategic alliances, mergers & acquisitions, and financings, in the life sciences industries. Deals are listed by the following industry sectors: in vitro diagnostics, pharmaceuticals, medical devices, and research/analytical instrumentation and reagents. All transactions are excerpted from Elsevier's Strategic Transactions.

Advances in imaging technologies mean that tiny lung nodules can now be detected, creating a need for technologies for diagnosing and treating lung cancer at early stages. Median Technologies, in computer-assisted detection, PneumRx, with a better biopsy tool, and Perceptronix Medical and Menssana Research, with novel diagnostics, hope to help here.

Lung cancer is the number one cause of deaths from cancer, in large part because it generally isn't detected until very late stages. At that point, survival rates are low and the only option is radical lung surgery. But now imaging technologies can detect smaller cancers, sooner, and in the wake of the publication of the Early Lung Cancer Action Project, the medical device industry is preparing for a paradigm shift. Start-ups are now developing technologies to remove the barriers in diagnosis and access that hinder therapeutic intervention.