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.

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

Recent medical device IPOs have fallen in value an average of 14%; but even at their current low valuations, returns to private investors remain healthy. For this reason, it is likely that new IPOs will be priced far closer to the valuations of the last private rounds than they were in the IPOs of 1996-97. This Start-Up analysis also reveals that, contrary to conventional industry wisdom, companies who went public with earlier stage products have generated higher returns to both private and public investors.