United will finance clinical development of drug/inhaler device combo with Respira. Takeda offloads more mature products to its joint venture with Teva, and signs a microbiome partnership with Finch Therapeutics.

Biopharma companies closed out 2016 with $9.6 billion in financing, the strongest quarter of the year. M&A deals reached $12.2 billion in value, led by Lonza's takeover of Capsugel; most of the fourth quarter's largest partnerships were built around innovative platforms in antibodies, peptides and gene therapy.

Not all of the key medtech deals of 2016 were blockbusters. Herein are some of the more interesting smaller deals of the year.

As predicted by Scrip last July, WuXi AppTec has moved one step closer to spinning out its biologics unit through an IPO on the Hong Kong equity market, while its main business unit is also proceeding with plans for a China domestic relisting.