Endosense is beginning to establish itself in the tough market of atrial fibrillation with a catheter that stresses an attribute that no one has featured yet: force sensing in delivering energy. Proving the clinical value of force-sensing will be difficult enough, but Endosense faced an even greater challenge in 2009 when its long-time backer, 3i, decided it wanted to exit device venture investing and divest its stake in the company.

A selection of our best blog posts from February for stories not covered elsewhere in the magazine includes: Friends in High Places: The White House appears to appreciate the need for innovation and, Medtronic's $1.03 billion buying spree is only the beginning in percutaneous heart valves.

Highlights from the Q3 2008 review of device and diagnostics dealmaking: Led by late-stage rounds, financing for medical device firms--at just over $1bn--showed a slight improvement over the last quarter. IPOs and follow-ons were noticeably absent in Q3, reminiscent of a time in 2003 when the IPO window closed. Not even one of the 13 device M&A transactions reached the billion-dollar mark, but the largest deal, GE Healthcare's buy of Vital Signs for $990mm, came close. In vitro diagnostics/research financings doubled to $643mm led by Illumina's $343mm FOPO. M&A activity in this industry was scant with a mere three transactions. However, Nanogen's reverse merger with Elitech Group--worth $99mm-beat the median M&A deal price ($60mm) over the past five years. Interestingly many in vitro diagnostics players turned to alliances with tech transfer entities in hopes of filling their pipelines.