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.

Recent executive-level company changes and promotions in the biopharma, medical device and diagnostics industries.

Medtech companies brought in $1.5 billion in Q2 2016, 15% less than Q1, with debt offerings accounting for more than half the total; acquisitions more than doubled due to Abbott's $25 billion takeover of St. Jude Medical. Diagnostics financings were down 34% from Q1 and acquisition volume, also lower, was mainly Thermo Fisher Scientific's $4.2 billion buy of FEI.

The medtech deal volume was similar to activity last year at this time, but the total deal value in April was nearly triple that of April 2015, according to an internal analysis.