Derived from Strategic Transactions, Informa’s premium source for tracking life sciences deal activity, the Dealmaking column is a survey of recent health care transactions listed by relevant industry segment – In Vitro Diagnostics, Medical Devices, and Pharmaceuticals – and then categorized by type – Acquisition, Alliance, or Financing. This month’s column covers deals announced in May 2017.

A licensing deal between the two cancer-focused biotechs falls apart amidst investor unrest at Immunomedics. Novartis opts to license Conatus' Phase II NASH candidate and picks up a CAR-T candidate from Celyad, while Shire adds to its dry eye franchise in deal with Parion.

Amid pharma industry’s repeated calls to improve the drug pricing system and properly reflect R&D cost of novel drugs, South Korea released steps that include hiking prices of “global innovative novel drugs” and biomedicines. Response is mixed, with foreign pharmas complaining the steps focus mainly on domestically developed drugs.

Despite slowdowns in capital equipment spending and strong pricing pressures, the US patient monitoring device market will grow by over $500 million between 2014 and 2019, reaching more than $2.5 billion by 2019 – a CAGR of almost 5%. Several factors are driving growth in this market, including the need for seamless solutions that can provide monitoring from hospital to home, and the growing adoption of portable and wearable technologies.