Q3 medtech financing doubled in dollar volume to $3 billion, with debt offerings again representing the majority of the aggregate; acquisitions totaled $5.3 billion, mainly due to Johnson & Johnson’s $4.3 billion buy of Abbott Medical Optics. Diagnostics financings, which brought in $85 million, continued to decline, but at $5 billion, acquisitions showed a slight increase over the previous quarter, with Danaher’s takeover of Cepheid accounting for most of the M&A volume.

LASIK continues to hold a dominant share of the refractive surgical market but limitations in current technologies are stymying further growth. However, a tide of innovation refractive correction is coming in now, and over the next few years that will accelerate growth in this market and fully capitalize on this huge and yet undertapped opportunity known as presbyopia. This article discusses drivers and barriers in the refractive correction market and highlights three companies to look out for this space.

US ophthalmic industry veteran James Mazzo takes the helm of Carl Zeiss Meditec's revamped ophthalmology unit.

Product news from Revision Optics, Medtronic, Pryor Medical, Interventional Spine and Merit Medical.