EUSA Pharma announced the launch of operations March 23 with a group of products acquired from Jazz Pharmaceuticals and funding from equity investor Essex Woodlands; it is the third specialty pharma company set up by U.K. entrepreneur Bryan Morton.

Jazz strays away from its CNS focus with a $700 million acquisition of EUSA Pharma, adding the specialty pharma’s oncology product to its portfolio.

Start-Up analyzes fundraising and alliances among start-ups in the biopharmaceutical, medical device and in vitro diagnostics segments from January through March 2008. Data comes from Windhover’s Strategic Transactions Database.

Highlights from the Q1 2008 review of pharmaceutical and biotechnology dealmaking: there was a drought in biopharma financings--particularly from the public markets with only two completed IPOs--but VC funding was strong and made up 40% of the total. M&A activity was also down and saw only one multi-billion dollar deal. In alliances, oligonucleotides were the subject of seven biopharmaceutical collaborations and accounted for most of the quarter's dealmaking money.