With later-stage in-licensing assets becoming harder to find, Merck is seeking to work more often and in varied ways with academic and institutional researchers to advance its pipeline. Recent tech transfer deals include Cancer Research UK’s transactions with ProNAi and Artios.

Derived from Strategic Transactions, Informa’s premium source for tracking life sciences deal activity, the Tech Transfer Deals column provides a monthly review of licensing agreements between companies and universities or other research institutions in the In Vitro Diagnostics, Medical Device, and Pharmaceutical sectors. This month’s column covers deals announced July through August 2015.

The device industry is playing a pivotal role in the evolution toward a more personalized approach to breast cancer management, with ongoing advances in minimally invasive treatment systems, tumor characterization and breast imaging technologies adding to the momentum. In the years ahead, as the breast cancer toolbox expands, the watchword will be “choice,” with physicians and patients offered more treatment options, targeted to their specific needs and desires, than ever before.

The merger of Accuray and TomoTherapy would combine two of the 11 medical device companies that went public in 2007, a class of companies that has produced mixed results.