The company says the matters under investigation are immaterial, but the stock market disagrees, taking about a billion dollars from embattled diagnostics company in under a half-hour.

Highlights from the Q1 2010 review of medical device and in vitro diagnostics/research dealmaking: Medical device financings raised $609 million, the lowest since 2009's opening quarter brought in $521 million. More than half of Q1's total dollars came from VC funding with late-stage rounds garning the most. The largest financing was Mindray Medical's $151 million follow-on offering. Seven private companies involved with biomaterials companies were heavy hitters, together accounting for 14% of Q1 2010's financing dollars. There wasn't much M&A activity with just 10 deals pulling in $1.4 billion, the lowest quarter since Q2 2009's $794 million take, however, four transactions did top the $100 million mark. Financing for the in vitro diagnostics/research segment was also disappointing: only $144 million was raised, less than half of what these industries pulled in during Q4 2009 and was way down from 2009's $522 million opening quarter. Conversely, M&A activity was up. Even without counting Merck KGAA's massive $7 billion-plus takeover of research tools company Millipore Corp., the aggregate of the quarter's seven other M&A's ($729 million) still well exceeded that of the closing quarter of 2009, thanks to multiple deals reaching $100 million or more.

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.

Highlights from the Q2 2009 review of medical device and in vitro diagnostics/research dealmaking: Financings by medical device companies jumped an impressive 62% over Q1 to $847 million--primarily from private VC rounds that contributed over 90% of the total deal volume with 52 early- and late-stage transactions--indicating a possible rebound in fundraising. Medical device M&As, on the other hand, proved to be a disappointment with only ten deals raising $794 million, most of which was Covidien's $470 million cash purchase of Vnus Medical. Although there were no big mergers, some device firms instead turned to the strategic alliance as a way to gain inexpensive products and technologies. On the in vitro diagnostics/research side, financing activity captured over three times the previous quarter's dollars through 12 deals totaling $302 million, however, almost 80% of that amount was from Beckman Coulter's $239 million FOPO. VC rounds only averaged $6 million apiece, with early- and late-stage rounds together bringing in $43 million. M&A in this industry segment was almost non-existent with only two transactions adding up to $358 million, a mere third of Q1 M&A deal volume.