Ethicon Endosurgery Inc. has had its hands full protecting a patent for robotic surgical systems, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal recently delivered some good news. The Federal Circuit affirmed the results of an inter partes review (IPR) of three claims for an endocutter patent, leaving Ethicon with another win in its efforts to sustain a critical patent for the robotic surgical space, and major player Intuitive Surgical Inc. coming out on the short end of the argument.

Israel and U.S.-based Rsip Vision Ltd. has released a new supporting technology for intraoperative video analysis. The company says its offering provides real-time and accurate anatomical measurements in surgical videos. This supports a variety of clinical use cases, such as bariatric surgery and small bowel resection.

PARIS – Robocath SAS has concluded an initial clinical study in Europe to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of robotic coronary angioplasty performed using its R-One platform. Sixty-two patients from six European hospitals participated in the R-Evolution clinical study. The study was aimed at assessing the safety and efficacy of the R-One robotic assistance platform.

Intuitive Surgical Inc. benefited from keen interest in resuming surgeries during pandemic troughs and hospitals investing in its Da Vinci robotic system in preparation for a more endemic phase of COVID-19, Intuitive CEO Gary Guthart said in a presentation at the J.P. Morgan 40th Annual Healthcare Conference on Jan. 12. The company’s unaudited preliminary fourth quarter and full year 2021 results also showed strong growth in procedure volumes – 19% year-over-year compared to 2020 and 13% compared to 2019. Still, Intuitive reported that “during 2021, COVID-19 resurgences continued to impact Da Vinci procedure volumes. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the company’s business has, and continues to, differ by geography and region.”

PARIS – The team from the ENT surgery department at Clermont-Ferrand University Hospital recently placed a cochlear implant into a patient with profound deafness using the Collin Medical SAS otologic robot in a hybrid operating room known as Imabloc.

The FDA’s regulation of medical technology may be assumed to have a number of unintended consequences, and one of those seems to be the lawsuit between Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and Auris Health Inc. Due to a 2018 FDA policy change regarding 510(k) devices, a robotic surgery system acquired by a J&J subsidiary from Auris was forced into the lengthier de novo premarket channel. This change ultimately helped derail the development effort for the Auris Iplatform surgical system and thus played a role in the $2.35 billion lawsuit alleging that J&J had engaged in fraud in its deal with Auris over the acquisition.

Virtual Incision Corp. raised $46 million in a series C funding round to support commercialization of its miniaturized in vivo robotic assistant (MIRA) for laparoscopic surgery. The first member of the company’s family of mini-robots in development targets colon surgery. Others in the pipeline will address hernia repair, gallbladder removal, sleeve gastrectomy, hysterectomy and other surgeries with specialized ranges of motion and tools.

A successful fundraising round by a Chinese surgical robot developer last week underscored the potentially fast growth of a sector that remains underdeveloped in China. Chinese surgical robot company Edge Medical Robotics Co. Ltd. raised $200 million in a series C round, and plans to use the funds for the commercialization of its core products.

Shanghai Microport Medbot (Group) Co. Ltd. started trading its shares on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on Nov. 2, with shares increasing over 6% in the middle of the day. It raised HK$1.56 billion ($201 million) with shares going at HK$43.2 apiece in an initial public offering. The firm plans to use 35% of the proceeds for the development and commercialization of its core product, the laparoscopic surgical robot Toumai.