Medicxi's new $300m venture fund will benefit from the expertise of former GSK R&D leader Moncef Slaoui, while ex-CEO Witty will inform portfolio strategy at Hatteras. Also, Kaleido hires past Cubist CEO and brings VC funding to $65m, while Gilead sells $3bn in debt to fund Kite deal.

Medtech companies brought in $1.5 billion in Q2 2016, 15% less than Q1, with debt offerings accounting for more than half the total; acquisitions more than doubled due to Abbott's $25 billion takeover of St. Jude Medical. Diagnostics financings were down 34% from Q1 and acquisition volume, also lower, was mainly Thermo Fisher Scientific's $4.2 billion buy of FEI.

Derived from Strategic Transactions, Informa’s premium source for tracking life sciences deal activity, the Dealmaking column is a survey of recent health care transactions listed by relevant industry segment – In Vitro Diagnostics, Medical Devices, Pharmaceuticals, and Research/Analytical Supplies – and then categorized by type – Acquisition, Alliance, or Financing. This month’s column covers deals announced in April 2016.

As health care becomes more personalized, diagnosis and monitoring needs to follow suit: New Zealand-based Footfalls & Heartbeats Ltd. is using smart knitted textiles with electrically conductive yarn to make clothes where the knitting itself forms a sensor. The start-up’s first product, scheduled to launch in January 2014, is a compression “smart sock” for use in the treatment of chronic venous leg ulcers.