The year might have started off slow for start-up fundraising ($398.7 million in Q1), but during the second quarter of 2013 life science companies rallied and earned a whopping $907.2 million. There were several reverse licensing arrangements as well as alliances involving large molecule-focused start-ups.

Device companies kicked off 2013 by raising $1.1 billion via 45 transactions; the only device M&A transaction in Q1 to exceed the billion-dollar mark was Cardinal Health Inc.’s $2.07 billion acquisition of AssuraMed. Diagnostics firms began 2013 by raising a total of $286 million in the opening quarter, a 46% improvement over Q4 2012’s tally.

Derived from Strategic Transactions, Elsevier Business Intelligence’s premium source for tracking life sciences deal activity, the Tech Transfers column provides a monthly update on licensing agreements between universities or other research institutions and biopharma, medtech, and diagnostic start-ups.

Derived from Strategic Transactions, Elsevier Business Intelligence’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.