Brief summaries of recent medtech market and industry developments. This month we cover Covidien’s continuing buying spree, and other medtech M&A.

Since its spin-out from Tyco, Covidien has spent close to $5 billion acquiring public and privately held device companies, with more than $1 billion of that being spent just over the past six months. The string of purchases bulked up every one of Covidien’s existing medical device businesses. In the recent acquisition of superDimension, Covidien paid $300 million plus earn-outs for the maker of the iLogic system, which uses electromagnetic navigation bronchoscopy technology. The purchase means Covidien’s sales force will begin calling more on interventional pulmonologists, potentially creating an exit route for other pulmonary start-ups.

The capital drought that hit life science companies the past three years worked its way upstream in 2011, as several venture firms said they wouldn’t either continue in the life sciences or raise new funds. But our annual tally of life science Series A rounds presents a surprising twist: Series A rounds are up, not in blockbuster numbers by any stretch, but the downward trend of the recession years has finally been reversed. Among the year's nearly 100 Series A rounds we found plenty of oncology and peripheral vascular disease start-ups, as well as big bets on rare disease, along with some considerable nods to emerging markets.