The potential to use a simple blood test to guide physicians in monitoring cancer therapies, detect early cancers, serve as a companion diagnostic to guide targeted therapeutics and predict the likely course or outcomes of disease in patients has spurred a lot of interest and innovation. Here's a look at emerging companies hoping to make an impact, including insights from interviews conducted with C-Level visitors at the recent Liquid Biopsy Conference in San Francisco. This is the second of a two-part series focusing on the global liquid biopsy market.

Device and diagnostics fundraising slumped in Q2, but there was a substantial uptick in M&A activity. Device financings totaled just slightly over half of the previous quarter, while acquisitions grew almost six-fold, thanks primarily to Becton Dickinson's $23.5 billion play for CR Bard. Financing in diagnostics slid to $1.03 billion, less than half of Q1, whereas the $1.7 billion in M&As (most of that from PerkinElmer's $1.3 billion buy of EuroImmun) was more than double Q1's aggregate.

Q3 medtech financing doubled in dollar volume to $3 billion, with debt offerings again representing the majority of the aggregate; acquisitions totaled $5.3 billion, mainly due to Johnson & Johnson’s $4.3 billion buy of Abbott Medical Optics. Diagnostics financings, which brought in $85 million, continued to decline, but at $5 billion, acquisitions showed a slight increase over the previous quarter, with Danaher’s takeover of Cepheid accounting for most of the M&A volume.

Derived from Strategic Transactions, Informa’s premium source for tracking life sciences deal activity, this new bimonthly Pacts In Medtech column pulls up notable technology alliances, R&D partnerships and commercial collaborations. This month we highlight deals announced in July and August 2016.