The popularity of DPC's random-access immunoassay system, the Immulite 2000, has helped the company become a significant player in the highly competitive automated immunoassay market. But DPC's benefited from some good luck--namely the misfortunes of top player Abbott Diagnostics and the slow efforts by other competitors to step into the gap left by Abbott. DPC's dilemma is whether it can maintain its narrow focus as Abbott re-emerges and other competitors get stronger.

Bio-Rad's having a great year, thanks to its presence in the fast-growing life sciences business of protein analysis, and its surprise success with a test for bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). Founder and CEO David Schwartz built the business based on a mix of eclectic product lines into an $800 million force in life sciences and clinical diagnostics. But as he nears 80, the company is grappling with succession issues, as well as a sense that it needs to better integrate its disparate businesses.

Only seven weeks after merging, French diagnostic-pharma company bioMerieux-Pierre Fabre is proposing to buy Organon Teknika's diagnostics business. The deal would combine two players with complementary, not overlapping, strengths in microbiology and infectious diseases. Under Dutch labor law, the proposal must be reviewed by Dutch employee groups and antitrust regulators before Organon Teknika's parent, Akzo Nobel NV, can formally accept it.