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Venture investments into biopharma and medtech continued their 2024 upswing during the third quarter, according to a new report from J.P. Morgan. Biopharma startups raised $6.6 billion in venture investments during that quarter, and while that’s slightly down from Q3 2023, the year-to-date deals so far are greater than 2023. The investment bank estimates that overall venture investment in biopharma will hit about $27.7 billion for the year, surpassing last year’s $23.5 billion and reversing the slide in value since 2021.. One item of note, however, is that total deal volume is down–but round sizes have gotten bigger.

On the medtech side, there was a total of $5.1 billion in venture investments in the sector last quarter. Medtech investments totaled $16.1 billion so far in 2024 and J.P. Morgan’s analysts expect total investment to reach $21.5 billion for the year, surpassing last year’s $16.9 billion by nearly 30%. Check sizes for medtech investments remained on the smaller end, with most rounds being under $50 million.

llustration by Cecilia Runxi Zhang for Forbes; Photos by Qnovia; Peter Dazeley/Getty Images

Six years ago, in a townhouse in Santa Monica, Mario Danek began tinkering on a device to help cigarette smokers quit. After buying nebulizers, syringes, gaskets, battery packs, electrical firmware and pharmaceutical-grade nicotine liquid, Danek—who had recently sold his stake in a vaporizer company—took everything apart and hacked together a functional prototype.

It wasn’t pretty, but it worked. The first device had a “Frankenstein look,” says the 39-year-old Danek. “I used a syringe as a liquid vessel and there were........

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