Our 12th annual analysis reveals both an expansion of historical patterns of Series A financings and the emergence of a new group of heavily committed, relatively short-term investors.

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.

Life sciences start-ups raised $2.61 billion in Q2 2015. Biotechs penned 38 alliances; seven acquisitions were signed, none in the medical device industry.

Derived from Strategic Transactions, Informa’s premium source for tracking life sciences deal activity, the Medical Device Deals Update column is a survey of recent medtech M&A, alliance, and financing activity. This month’s column covers deals announced April-May 2015.