Medical device companies raised $1.1 billion, a 40% increase over Q4 2011’s $800 million. Two billion-dollar deals in the resuscitation market boosted device acquisition activity to $4.2 billion. Twenty diagnostics financings brought in a collective $302 million, soaring above the previous quarter’s $269 million. There were seven diagnostics M&A deals completed, totaling $589 million – down yet again.

ConforMIS last month closed on an $89 million Series E round to help pay for the company’s commercial launch of iTotal, customized, patient-specific total knee implants.

Major Japanese companies Takeda, Astellas and SMBC are joining hands to establish a new joint venture with $3.9m capital and based in Japan’s largest biocluster Shonan iPark to help incubate local biopharma start-ups.