Highlights from the Q4 2007 review of medical device and in vitro diagnostics/research dealmaking: there was a boost in medical device acquisitions--with patient monitoring in particular, which accounted for about half the total of this period--capping off an impressive year in medtech M&A activity. Of note in the in vitro diagnostics/research space was glucose monitoring, which brought in 60% of the total GM segment's $160 million in financing for the entire year.

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

Following the strategy of those icons of success in the diabetes industry, Medisense and Therasense, Pelikan Technologies is executing well on its plan to develop a glucose monitoring platform that offers convience and freedom from pain, to reduce the current hurdles that prevent patients with diabetes from testing as much as they should. (Part of a group of articles that includes: "Where are They Now? Checking in on Three Glucose Monitoring Companies," "A Decade of Development of SMSI: Will it Yield Improved Accuracy in CGM?" and "GlucoLight: Making Non-Invasive Glucose Monitoring Real."

Laying out a strategy is one thing; executing it is another. That's why, from time to time, START-UP revisits companies it has written about in the past to find out what went according to plan, and what didn't. As we revisit the field of glucose monitoring--a field with a high attrition rate, we'll see if we can draw out some lessons, both from the successes and from the failures, for those starting out today. (Introduction to three separate articles in the December 2007 issue: "Pelikan Technologies Swoops in on the Big Four"; "A Decade of Development for SMSI: Will It Yield Improved Accuracy in CGM?" and "GlucoLight Makes Non-invasive Glucose Monitoring Real.")