Propelled by the completion of two large acquisitions, the previous quarter was a strong one for device industry M&A activity, and indicators suggest the deal making will continue, PricewaterhouseCoopers says.

A roundup of recent medtech mergers & acquisitions, strategic alliances, and financings.

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 database, providing comprehensive transaction coverage from 1991 to the present.

Bausch & Lomb was slogging forward after a difficult year-the company had been embroiled in a lengthy accounting investigation involving some of its foreign subsidiaries since the end of 2005 and in early 2006 it was compelled to recall its most profitable product-. In mid-May 2007 Bausch & Lomb was wrestling with a 3% decrease in annual sales, 344 product liability lawsuits, and an overhanging intellectual property case that could affect its fastest growing contact lens line, when up galloped white knight private equity firm Warburg Pincus, with a $4.5 billion offer to take the ophthalmic company private.