Meio Medical Inc.’s Titian, a surgical robot for navigation in cardiac electrophysiology, has been included in a Green Pathway for approval of medical devices in China, meaning it could get to market faster. Inclusion in the Green Pathway gives the medical device priority for reviewing and shortens the average registration time. Currently, Meio Medical is running a trial of Titian in multiple hospitals in China.

Robocath SAS said Cathbot, its joint venture set up in 2020, has enrolled the final patient for its clinical study in China to evaluate the safety and the efficacy of its robotic platform for percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). “The completion of our PCI robotic multicenter trial in China is a crucial milestone in our development in this part of the world,” Philippe Bencteux, president and founder of Robocath, told BioWorld.

Lung cancer claims more lives each year than any other cancer, making early and accurate diagnosis crucial to improving survival rates. To that end, the U.S. FDA has cleared the integration of Intuitive Surgical Inc.’s Ion endoluminal system and Siemens Healthineers AG’s Cios Spin mobile imaging cone-beam CT imaging technology to enhance robotic lung biopsies.

Shanghai Microport Medbot (Group) Co. Ltd. plans to list on the Shanghai Stock Exchange on the Sci-Tech Board to raise ¥2.8 billion (US$420 million) to progress its surgical robots. The funds raised from the IPO would go toward research and development of the surgical robots, manufacturing, marketing and academic promotion, as well as replenishing working capital. The company also plans shareholder dividend distribution plans within three years following the IPO listing.

Ethicon Endosurgery Inc. and Intuitive Surgical Inc. have been sparring in the courts over patents for robot surgery systems for some time, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has ruled on yet another of those disputes.