Integration is occuring at almost every level of the in vitro diagnostic industry--at the preclinical level to decrease drug development costs and timelines and at the clinical level to better manage diseases. In the lab, there's a demand for new tools to improve speed and efficiency, and new information systems to better integrate disparate data. At the same time, there has been a flurry of integration and consolidation at the market level, with 35 mergers and acquisitions in the last 12 months.

With the aging of the population, heart failure has emerged as a key public health concern. Several device-based technologies are poised to positively impact both ends of the disease spectrum, enabling earlier diagnosis and treatment, and providing more treatment options for those in later stages of the disease.

Summary of recent device mergers and acquisitions, alliances, and financings.

Sybron International, hardly a well-known name in the diagnostics industry, has built a $350 million highly profitable diagnostics business by acquiring small, niche companies. Its latest acquisition, Microgenics Corp., makes it an important player in the drugs of abuse and therapeutic drug monitoring businesses. Microgenics had been part of Boehringer Mannheim Corp. But when Roche bought Boehringer Mannheim, the FTC required Roche to sell off Microgenics for anti-trust reasons. Microgenics was sold last summer to an investor group, which sold it to Sybron.