And then there were three. With consolidation leaving three major players in each sector of the medical device industry, what happens to competition?

Consolidation in the medical device industry has reduced the major players in each sector to three. While some laud the trend, saying one supplier can bundle products at a deep discount to hospitals, others say savings are often illusory. Cook Group President Kem Hawkins, left, sees the amalgamation as the ordinary course of business, and isn't "any more rampant now than at other times in the past".