Private Company Edition: With $8.9bn raised in the second quarter, venture capital investment in biopharma companies reached its second highest quarterly total to date – behind only Q1 of this year. Also, Nimbus Therapeutics raised $105m and European drug developers get in on the VC action. 

Highlights from the Q2 2009 review of start-up dealmaking: Fundraising in the biopharma, medical device, and in vitro diagnostics industries totaled $864 million--a 25% increase from Q1 2009--with most of the money, 54% or $465 million, coming out of the device industry, which saw only $127 million the previous quarter. There was one acquisition--PPD paid $14.5 million in cash for Magen BioSciences. In the most significant alliance, valued at up to $527 million, GSK got rights to three compounds from Concert Pharmaceuticals, including two in the preclinical stage, which was the most popular phase of development on Q2 alliances.

In Vivo briefly summarizes these recently founded companies: CellTraffix, Eqlibra Medical Systems, ExThera Medical, Knome, NeoChord and PlexPress.