Verily Life Sciences LLC. (Mountain View, Calif.) has formed a partnership with Johnson & Johnson (New Brunswick, N.J.) to form Verb Surgical, a firm focused on developing a surgical solutions platform that will incorporate robotic capabilities and medical device technology.

Competition is intensifying in the transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) market, but Edwards Lifesciences Corp. (Irvine, Calif.) (NYSE: EW) executives assured investors Wednesday the company is not resting on its TAVR laurels and still expects double-digit growth from its transcatheter heart valve therapy (THVT) business in 2016.