Johnson & Johnson is bulking up on its surgical-robotics presence by acquiring Auris Health for $3.4 billion.
Auris makes a controller-operated robotic camera that helps doctors get visuals from within the body, including the lungs.
Auris was most recently valued at $2.1 billion as a private company, putting it among other health-tech unicorns. J&J agreed to pay as much as $2.35 billion more for Auris based on development milestones that the company, based in Redwood City, California, hits.
“In this new era of health care, we’re aiming to simplify surgery, drive efficiency, reduce complications and improve outcomes for patients, ultimately making surgery safer,” Ashley McEvoy, the executive vice president of medical devices at J&J, said in a statement Wednesday.
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J&J has been bulking up its presence in surgical robotics in recent years. In 2018, the company acquired Orthotaxy, a company developing robotic surgical tools to assist in total and partial knee replacements. It also has a joint venture with Verily, Alphabet’s life-sciences arm, called Verb Surgical that’s developing new ways to use robots to assist in surgery.
Since its founding, Auris raised more than $700 million in venture funding. Investors in Auris included Lux Capital, Mithril Capital Management, Highland Capital, Partner Fund Management, and Coatue Management.
The acquisition of Auris by J&J would be one of the 10 largest venture-backed private deals, according to Peter Hébert at Lux Capital, which led Auris’ Series A round.
In March, Auris got approval from the Food and Drug Administration for its robot-camera product, called Monarch. The idea is to get a clearer picture of places within the lungs that are often reached only through more invasive procedures.
“We believe that Monarch will become the go-to approach for diagnosing lung cancer in the future,” Auris’ chief scientific officer, Josh DeFonzo, told Business Insider at the time.
from Viral Update News http://bit.ly/2Sv00fw
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