TLDR:
- MedTech venture investment bounced back slightly in the first quarter of 2024, reaching $3.3 billion.
- Late-stage deals took nearly half of the investment total, with Freenome raising $254 million for cancer detection.
The first quarter of 2024 showed a positive trend in venture capital funding for medical devices, with $3.3 billion invested in the sector. This marked an increase from $2.8 billion in the fourth quarter of 2023. Late-stage deals accounted for a significant portion of the investment total, with the largest single deal being a $254 million raise for Freenome, a company focused on early cancer detection through blood tests. However, there were few exits in the first quarter, with no major IPOs and only a few acquisitions. The report highlights Johnson & Johnson’s $13.1 billion acquisition of Shockwave Medical as a potential sign of future exits to come. Additionally, Atropos Health raised $33 million for its innovative AI approach to health data, focusing on federated queries rather than aggregating large datasets. Other notable updates in the healthcare space include biotech company Gameto raising $33 million for novel fertility treatments, Natural Cycles securing $55 million for their FDA-cleared birth control app, and Merck’s acquisition of EyeBio for up to $3 billion for treatments of retinal diseases. The report also addresses the concerning increase in air pollution-related deaths from heart conditions, obesity, and diabetes, with emissions exacerbating the issue. In other news, Melinda French Gates announced a $1 billion donation for women’s issues, Eli Lilly is investing $5.3 billion in a new manufacturing site for weight loss and diabetes medications, and Novo Nordisk’s semaglutide injection shows potential in protecting the kidneys.
