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 Windhover's Strategic Transactions database, providing comprehensive transaction coverage from 1991 to the present.

An analysis of a group of Big Pharma and big biotech spin-outs, which tend to raise more private money than their build-from-scratch bretheren, shows that while these firms are certainly heftier--and often considered better equiped to succeed in the public markets--their pre-money step-ups are in the end, nothing special.

Europe's financing environment makes it difficult to build big biotech from scratch. But sustainable biopharma firms are nevertheless emerging--mostly through the transformation of existing pharma assets.

By merging with Swiss product development group MyoContract, Germany's Graffinity addresses its two key issues at once: a lack of products, and poor prospects for a viable listing in its home market. Europe's industry needs more such deals, but making them happen isn't easy.