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.

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.

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.