Brief summaries of recent medtech market and industry developments. This month we cover China’s switch to a centralized billing system, St. Jude Medical’s RESPECT PFO closure trial, FDA’s approval of HeartWare’s LVAD, and end-of-the-year medtech M&A.

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, medical devices, pharmaceuticals, 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.

To the familiar sounds of the Fourth of July and mid-summer, Deals of the Week adds another: the sound of the next shoe dropping in biopharmaceutical merger-and-acquisition activity. What happens next after the $5 billion-plus buyout of Amylin by Bristol-Myers?