Derived from Strategic Transactions, Informa’s premium source for tracking life sciences deal activity, the Venture Funding Deals column provides a comprehensive monthly review of emerging biopharmaceutical companies that have received venture funding. This month’s column covers deals announced August and September.

Second quarter device financing totaled $3.4 billion, less than half of the Q1 aggregate. Conversely, the $10.6 billion in device M&As was a 58% upsurge over the previous quarter. Like the device trends, total Q2 diagnostics financings (at $959 million) showed a 36% decline from Q1, while the $4.8 billion in M&A volume exhibited a significant increase over the previous quarter.

Derived from Strategic Transactions, Informa’s premium source for tracking life sciences deal activity, the Deal-Making column is a survey of recent health care transactions listed by relevant industry segment – In Vitro Diagnostics, Medical Devices, and Pharmaceuticals – and then categorized by type – Acquisition, Alliance, or Financing. This month’s column covers deals announced in August 2018.

Biopharma financing for the second quarter totaled $12.4 billion, a 25% decrease from Q1 2018. Meanwhile Q2 merger and acquisition deal value reached $101 billion, three-quarters of which came from Takeda's $79 billion takeover of major European player Shire. Alliances – totaling $13.8 billion (a significant decline from the previous quarter's $30.7 billion) – featured large partnerships in the antibody space, the biotechnology industry sector with the highest dollar volume.

Derived from Strategic Transactions, Informa's premium source for tracking life-sciences deals, the bimonthly Pacts In Medtech highlights notable technology alliances, R&D partnerships and commercial collaborations. In this edition, we look at industry pacts that were sealed in July and August 2018.

New $150m Series C round brings Orchard's tally to nearly $300m, just four months after the start-up acquired a portfolio of gene therapy candidates from GSK and eight months after a $110m round. Gritstone closed a Series C then announced an IPO filing, plus more late-summer VC rounds.