Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (Labcorp) has put the wheels in motion to acquire Sequenom in a $371 million deal (including debt). Labcorp, of Burlington, N.C., expects to pay $2.40 a share for all of Sequenom's outstanding shares in a cash tender offer.

A proposed $225 million acquisition is expected to bookend Santen Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.'s portfolio of intraocular pressure (IOP) products, the company's head of R&D told Medical Device Daily. Santen, of Osaka, Japan, already has a robust portfolio of IOP drugs – primarily in the form of eye drops – available worldwide, said Naveed Shams, who also is the chief scientific officer at Santen. What is missing, he said, is a product designed to treat end-stage disease.

Analysts are often seen as industry meteorologists, as a key component of their job is to analyze market conditions and spot trends within their coverage areas. In med tech, these gurus pay particularly close attention to merger and acquisition (M&A) activity and several analysts recently predicted that M&A activity will continue, if not accelerate. Canaccord Genuity's Jason Mills even offered up his thoughts on which stocks might be at the top of some buyers' shopping lists. If his theory is correct, some of the smaller med-tech firms may be due for some sunny days in terms of exit opportunity.

Wright Medical Group N.V. plans to sell its Tornier hip and knee business to Corin Orthopaedics Holdings Limited for roughly €29.7 million (US$33 million), marking the second time Wright has stepped out of the large joint business. The business represents just 5 percent of Wright's overall sales, the company noted. The sale is expected to close around the end of the third quarter or early in the fourth quarter.

In a world where most biotech, pharmaceutical, and medical device companies are hopping on the personalized medicine train, one French company is following a different path, with a technology that uses nanophysics rather than a biological mode of action. And that approach seems to be making a difference in clinical trials.

Bio-techne Corp. has agreed to spend up to $325 million on an acquisition that represents the company's entry into the genomics market. Bio-techne said it will pay $250 million in cash for Advanced Cell Diagnostics (ACD) plus another $75 million tied to the achievement of certain milestones.