J & J may nab surgical robotics company Auris Health

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) intends to acquire surgical robotics company Auris Health, according to a report by Bloomberg News. In May 2018, Auris inked an agreement with J&J’s division Ethicon’s NeuWave Medical subsidiary to develop systems for the robotically-assisted bronchoscopic ablation of lung lesions. J&J has been working with Alphabet‘s (NSDQ:GOOGL) Verily Life Sciences on Verb Surgical’s prototype robot-assisted surgery platform. J&J wants to spend more for Auris than the smaller company’s $2 billion valuation from its latest funding round, the Bloomberg report said, citing anonymous sources. Redwood City, Calif.-based Auris closed on a $220 million equity financing round in November to help support its next-generation Monarch robotic interventional platform. The funding round brings the total raised for the Monarch platform up to $700 million, Auris Health said. The Monarch platform has FDA clearance for diagnostic and therapeutic bronchoscopic procedures. The system features a controller interface for navigating the integrated flexible robotic endoscope into the periphery of the lung and combines traditional endoscopic views with computer-assisted navigation based on 3D patient models, the company said. Auris’ system uses a game-like controller that allows for more direct control than existing one-handed interfaces to maneuver the endoscope. Formed by Intuitive Surgical (NSDQ:ISRG) founder Dr. Frederic Moll, cl...
Source: Mass Device - Category: Medical Devices Authors: Tags: Blog Business/Financial News Endoscopic / Arthroscopic Mergers & Acquisitions Robotics aurishealth johnsonandjohnson Source Type: news