Momentum is rising for patients with chronic kidney disease to be treated with hemodialysis in the comfort of their own home as opposed to traveling several days a week to a freestanding clinic. Manufacturers, government and payers are paving the way for a higher home-therapy adoption rate. That said, many patients remain unsuitable for home care and the large volume of water needed to operate hemodialysis can be logistically daunting.

The US Federal Trade Commission has finally approved Fresenius' $2bn acquisition of NxStage Medical. A complaint filed by the FTC in February 2019 claimed the deal would be anti-competitive.

The UK company recently finished a pilot trial of the SC+ personal dialysis system in France, as part of its plan to launch it in Europe by the end of 2018 and earn US FDA clearance in 2019.

Third-quarter device financing at $2.38 billion – almost half of that amount from CooperSurgical's $1.1 billion bridge loan – was double the Q2 total, while device acquisitions showed a steep decrease at $3.38 billion versus Q2's $33.4 billion. Diagnostics fundraising also was up in the third quarter, reaching $2.4 billion (a 133% increase over Q2) mostly from Thermo Fisher Scientific's $1.5 billion follow-on offering, which accounted for 63% of the total. In line with the previous quarter's $1.7 billion in M&A, Q3 diagnostics acquisitions had an aggregate value of $1.8 billion, led by Konica Minolta's $1 billion buy of Ambry Genetics.