Burning Rock Biotech Ltd. has formed a global strategic partnership with Impact Therapeutics Inc. to develop companion diagnostics for a pipeline of drugs in the field of synthetic lethality.

Bioventus Inc. reported plans to acquire Misonix Inc. in a cash and stock transaction valued at $518 million, which the companies expect to close in the fourth quarter of 2021. The transaction will create a total addressable market of $15 billion for the combined company across the wound care, orthopedics, lower extremity and neurosurgery market segments.

Becton, Dickinson and Co. (BD) notched its sixth tuck-in buy of the year, acquiring long-time partner and resorbable polymer maker Tepha Inc. for an undisclosed sum. The deal will facilitate expansion of BD’s surgical mesh offerings and drive growth in new areas of soft tissue repair, reconstruction and regeneration. Wall Street gave the Tepha deal a thumbs up. After hitting a high of $256.32 Tuesday, BD shares (NYSE:BDX) maintained a strong beat, closing up 2.11 at $254.69.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had previously reported it would more tightly scrutinize mergers and acquisitions with an eye toward the impact on competition, and voted July 21 to expand its authority to review these activities. The agency also voted to eliminate restrictions by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) on servicing of their devices, thus putting both drug and device makers on alert that much more rigorous FTC enforcement has arrived.

Cellares Corp. added Poseida Therapeutics Inc. to its expanding early access partnership program (EAPP) for the company's Cell Shuttle, a highly specialized "factory in a box" solution for development of cell therapies. San Diego-based Poseida brings two autologous CAR-T product candidates to the program and joins Pact Pharma Inc. and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in the EAPP.

In a deal worth up to $108 million, ophthalmic startup Eluminex Biosciences Ltd. has licensed the global rights to Fibrogen Inc.’s biosynthetic cornea derived from recombinant human collagen (RHC) type III intended to tackle corneal blindness.

LONDON – U.K. rapid diagnostics specialist Mologic Ltd. has been acquired by a group of philanthropists led by George Soros’ Economic Development Fund and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and will be turned from a for-profit company to a social enterprise. The aim is to use the change in status to expand access to low-cost point-of-care testing for tropical diseases, including dengue, bilharzia and river blindness, as well at COVID-19. The name Mologic will be changed to Global Access Health (GAH), with the philanthropic owners saying they are to invest at least $41 million in the deal.

In the largest private fundraising round for a U.S. medical device company in the past year, Imperative Care Inc. closed $260 million in a series D financing round on Thursday. The company also acquired its spinoff Truvic Medical Inc., a peripheral thrombectomy developer.

Heartflow Holding Inc. is aiming to bring its noninvasive, artificial intelligence (AI)-based test for coronary heart disease to more doctors and patients via a merger with Longview Acquisition Corp. II. The deal, valued at an enterprise value of about $2.4 billion, is the latest in a steady stream of med techs queueing up to go public via a “blank check” special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) this year.

Med-tech mergers and acquisitions are at their highest level in four years and have already beat the full year of 2020, primarily due to a multibillion-dollar whopper completed in April. The number of industry partnerships also tower over prior years, with digital health efforts covering about 40% of the volume. Looking only at this year, the second quarter (Q2) of 2021 performed better than the first quarter (Q1) in terms of both M&As and deals.