First quarter VC investments in biopharma set high expectations for the second quarter; Acorda cuts jobs after patent litigation defeat, plus other strategic realignments; no new US IPOs, but Europe has three; and notable follow-on offerings.

Also, Advicenne doubles its fundraising to date; Michael Gilman-helmed Arrakis raises a $38m Series A; Breath spins out with $46m; and Spero gets $51.7m for novel antibacterials.

Derived from Strategic Transactions, Informa’s premium source for tracking life sciences deal activity, the Venture Funding Deals column provides a monthly review of emerging In Vitro Diagnostic, Medical Device, and Pharmaceutical companies that have received venture funding. This month’s column covers deals announced January through February 2016.

$1.4 billion in Q3 device financing was slightly lower than Q2's $1.8 billion with just one IPO versus Q2's seven. Acquisitions reached a high of $23 billion and diagnostics financing increased 30% over Q2 to $1 billion, while M&A activity at $1.2 billion showed a sharp decline from the previous quarter's $15.6 billion.