The latest drug development news and highlights from the Pink Sheet’s US FDA Performance Tracker.

Medtronic Inc. is betting on emerging markets and the “value” market to be its major growth drivers over the next few years.

Medical device companies have always faced technological, regulatory, reimbursement and market risk, and a new risk has been recently added to this existing set of challenges: financing risk. Longer product development cycles mean sustained funding requirements, at a time when venture funds are less numerous and smaller, and syndicates have become difficult to assemble. These dynamics have sent many companies scurrying to Europe, in search of a more predictable regulatory environment and alternative sources of funding, according to a panel of European venture capitalists that spoke at the IN3 (Investment In Innovation) medical device conference sponsored by Elsevier Business Intelligence, which was held in Paris in March 2011. We queried the panelists to find out if they're optimistic or pessimistic about medtech investing for the future, what kinds of deals they find attractive now, whether medical device investments still have merits relative to pharmaceutical deals, what advantages Europe might offer to the US as a field of investment, and how companies can survive among a scarcity of funds.

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.