12 surgical robotics companies you need to know

Johnson & Johnson: Taking its time

Johnson & Johnson (NYSE:JNJ) is taking its time on a general surgery robot to compete against Intuitive Surgical. J&J announced in July that it has decided not to follow a 510(k) clearance pathway; the company’s goal is to start first-in-human studies with the system by the second half of 2022.

The medtech giant has been working on combining technologies that came out of its previous Verb Surgical collaboration with the Alphabet (NSDQ:GOOGL) life sciences unit Verily — as well as its $3.4 billion purchase of Auris Health and its FDA-cleared Monarch platform.

“We continue to be impressed by the technology advancements we’re seeing with both the Verb and Verily and the Auris combination. Our teams are making very good progress as we speak,” J&J CEO Alex Gorsky said during a July earnings call transcribed by Seeking Alpha.

During the second half of 2020, J&J is planning a U.S. regulatory submission for robotic knee surgery as part of its Velys digital surgery platform. The robotic surgery technology came out of J&J’s acquisition of Orthotaxy in 2018.

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