At $1.8 billion, Q2 device financing nearly doubled the Q1 total, mainly from an increase in IPOs and early VC rounds, and acquisitions were slightly higher at $4.7 billion. Diagnostics funding also increased to $784 million from Q1's $597 million, and Danaher's monster $13.8 billion buy of life sciences company Pall headlined the second quarter's $15.6 billion total in diagnostics M&A activity.

Customers are confused, suppliers continue to be squeezed, and sales growth is flat to slow but there are pockets of opportunity for diagnostics.