Private Company Edition: The pre-J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference financing news deluge during the first week of 2021 included several significant venture capital deals, including a $226m series B round for Affinivax, Ikena’s $120m series B round and an $88m series A round for Aro.

Manufacturers are finding it harder to innovate in the vascular interventional devices as market and regulatory pressures take their toll. New coronary drug-eluting stents face a difficult challenge with the high bar now set by existing devices, and there have been several recent disappointments in renal denervation, drug-coated balloons, and renal artery stenting; still there are some promising areas, with bioresorbable stents offering perhaps the best prospect among vascular therapies for future blockbuster status.

Manufacturers are finding it harder to innovate in the vascular interventional device arena as market and regulatory pressures take their toll. New coronary drug-eluting stents face a difficult challenge with the high bar now set by existing devices, and there have been several recent disappointments in the areas of renal denervation, drug-coated balloons, and renal artery stenting; still there are areas of opportunity that continue to look promising, with bioresorbable stents offering perhaps the best prospect among vascular therapies for future blockbuster status.

To stave off the sluggish growth in established markets, multinational medtechs not only are finding new business in countries with booming health care industries but they’re also forging new ways to serve customers. Device companies now are pushing into services, such as disease management, and angling to compete more aggressively on pricing.