The conventional wisdom in the medtech industry is to pursue the “razor-razor blade” business model, as each placement of capital equipment generates a lucrative annuity of recurring revenues from disposables. The corollary to this conventional wisdom is that so-called “big iron” is to be avoided as, in sharp contrast, it suffers from greater early cash requirements and longer sales cycles that create difficulties forecasting quarterly revenues, and provides no annuities. But that view is no longer the only one that counts, Health Advances CEO Mark Speers argues.

Medical aesthetics is a growing, but largely untapped biopharma niche with unique consumer marketing and doctor relationship-building strategies where key players have honed their skills for many years. Allergan's blockbuster Botox dominates, but competitors are gaining ground.

Device and diagnostics fundraising slumped in Q2, but there was a substantial uptick in M&A activity. Device financings totaled just slightly over half of the previous quarter, while acquisitions grew almost six-fold, thanks primarily to Becton Dickinson's $23.5 billion play for CR Bard. Financing in diagnostics slid to $1.03 billion, less than half of Q1, whereas the $1.7 billion in M&As (most of that from PerkinElmer's $1.3 billion buy of EuroImmun) was more than double Q1's aggregate.

The week's roundup includes the appointment of a new CEO by Flex Pharma and various other high-level appointments by Bicycle Therapeutics, SetPoint Medical, Theravance Biopharma and Nordic Nanovector.