Johnson & Johnson Acquires Auris Health for $3.4 Billion to Expand Robotic Surgery Portfolio

VCBeat (WeChat Official Account: vcbeat) has learned that on February 13, 2019, healthcare giant Johnson & Johnson acquired Silicon Valley-based surgical robotics company Auris Health (“Auris”) for $3.4 billion in cash. In late January of this year, Johnson & Johnson had planned to acquire Auris for over $2 billion, but the two parties failed to reach an agreement at that time.

Through this acquisition, Auris’s Monarch platform will be integrated with Johnson & Johnson’s Neuwave Flex microwave ablation system, bringing robotic surgical technology for airway procedures and lung cancer detection to Johnson & Johnson and expanding its digital surgery business. Additionally, the agreement between Johnson & Johnson and Auris stipulates that Johnson & Johnson will make an additional payment of $2.35 billion if Auris achieves specific milestones, with Auris becoming part of Ethicon, Johnson & Johnson’s medical device subsidiary. The Auris Health transaction is expected to close by the end of the second quarter of 2019, subject to regulatory approvals.

Johnson & Johnson has been strengthening its business in the field of surgical robotics in recent years, establishing a joint venture with Alphabet's Verily, called Verb Surgical, in 2018 and acquiring Orthotaxy, a French company specializing in robot-assisted orthopedic surgery. Verb Surgical is set to launch its first product by the end of 2020.

Auris Health was founded in 2007 by Fred Moll, a Ph.D. in surgical robotics. Moll is also the co-founder of Intuitive Surgical, a publicly traded robotic surgery company valued at $61 billion. The acquisition agreement states that Moll will join Johnson & Johnson, although his specific role has not been disclosed. Auris improves existing minimally invasive techniques and reduces medical intervention by integrating robotics, micro-instruments, endoscopic design, sensing, and data science into a single platform. Prior to this acquisition, Auris had raised over $700 million to develop its Monarch platform.

The Monarch Platform received FDA approval last year and is primarily used for bronchoscopic procedures to improve the diagnosis of lung cancer and the outcomes of surgical treatment. Statistics show that more patients die from lung cancer annually than from prostate, breast, and colorectal cancers combined, largely due to the difficulty in accurately diagnosing lung cancer at an early stage.

Verb Surgical is a digital surgery platform that integrates robotics, visualization technology, advanced instrumentation, and data analytics. The platform enables surgeons to connect to an end-to-end surgical ecosystem, encompassing preoperative planning, intraoperative decision-making, and postoperative care.

Intuitive Surgical is a company that develops robotic-assisted minimally invasive surgery (MIS) technologies and tools. The company’s da Vinci® Surgical System provides surgeons with an operative platform offering visualization, dexterity, precision, and ergonomic comfort, enabling them to perform complex procedures, such as open-heart surgery through 1–2 cm incisions.

(Compiled by Zhang Yaping)