Private Company Edition: Publicly held Ascendis outsourced its preclinical AMD program to private Eyconis. Also, Innovation Endeavors revealed a new $630m VC fund and Mirae raised $50m for its first life science fund, while Accent, Comanche and Tr1X each brought in $75m rounds.

Private Company Edition: The amount of venture capital raised by biopharma firms fell but individual companies grabbed a lot of cash, making for a remarkable Q2 relative to pre-pandemic times. Recent Q3 rounds includes Frontera’s $160m series B. Also, Oxford Science Enterprises added €250m to its fund.

Wright Medical receives not approvable letter for its Augment bone graft asking for another study. Judge rules against Zimmer in favor of Strkyer in patent case. Cook Medical has resolved the problems that triggered a December 2012 recall of its Zilver PTX peripheral stent. Luminex cuts staff, invests in molecular diagnostics efforts.

More study is required to make sense of the adverse event rates associated with two marketed atrial septal defect occluders, a May 24 FDA panel concluded. St. Jude Medical, in particular, should start a new prospective study for its Amplatzer device, the panel recommends.