In Vivo presents another installment of our quarterly review of dealmaking--in this case February 2001-May 2001. Our data comes from Windhover's Strategic Transactions Database. We include medical device financings by industry segment and by deal type; medical device M&A; diagnostic financings and alliances by product category; pharma and biotech alliances by technology segment; pharma and biotech alliances by deal type, and pharma and biotech financings by market segment and therapeutic category.

Coming in late to the highly competitive and crowded market for cervical cancer screening, Ampersand Medical is doing something completely different. To remove the subjectivity from interpretation of test restuls, it is developing InPath, a comprehensive screening system that uses a cocktail of protein-based biomolecular markers to identify cellular abnormalities associated with cancers at different stages.

One of the last of the major hospital groups to commit to an Internet strategy, Novation has leaped into e-commerce with both feet through its recent deal with Neoforma. The company faces a host of challenges, not the least of which come from uncertain hospitals and reluctant product companies. For suppliers, the alliance of leading groups and dot-com companies raises questions about the future of the hospital marketplace.

The subject of medical mistakes has drawn increased attention over the last five years, culminating in the November 1999 Institute of Medicine's report, which made front page news and triggered responses from President Clinton and Congress, as well as the medical establishment and the health care industry. Of particular interest to pharmaceutical and medical products companies is the problem of medication errors, which appear to be increasing for a variety of reasons, ranging from the complexities posed by ever-increasing numbers of drugs and delivery regimens, to more basic factors such as indecipherable physician handwriting and the increased pressure resulting from medical staffing reductions. Whatever the cause, one thing is clear: medication errors are a systemic problem not given to any one quick fix. With the potential for errors occurring at every stage of the medication delivery chain--prescribing, processing, dispensing, and administering drugs--there's plenty of room for companies with potential solutions. Yet, existing information and automated drug distribution systems only incidentally address the problem of medication errors. Bridge Medical, a start-up focused exclusively on developing systems to prevent medication errors, is looking to correct mistakes no matter where they originate by concentrating on the final step in the drug delivery process: the patient's bedside. Bridge recently parted ways with its founder, choosing to move in a different direction that will bring it into more direct competition with large health care information technology players. The company is betting that having a technological headstart and being the only pure-play medication-error company will enable it to successfully navigate what is rapidly becoming a crowded and heavily scrutinized market.