Intuitive Surgical Invests $15M in Broncus Medical

Intuitive Surgical has closed a $15 million investment in Broncus Medical, which markets a suite of tools for the diagnosis and treatment of lung cancer. In addition to the $15 million investment, the deal includes a technology development collaboration and a licensing agreement.

Among Broncus’ existing technology is navigation and procedure planning software and a flexible needle for obtaining lung biopsies. Intuitive Surgical will support Broncus’ continued product development, including the execution of the ongoing EAST 2 (Evaluation of the Archimedes System for Transparenchymal Nodule Access 2) study, a post-market study that will enroll up to 200 patients and is designed to validate performance of the company’s technology for total lung navigation and tumor access. Further, the investment will help fund feasibility studies of Broncus’ investigational technology to bronchoscopically treat lung cancer.

Intuitive Surgical markets the da Vinci surgical robot, and the company is currently developing an application for the robot to obtain tissue samples from the lung. In this way, we expect the Broncus portfolio to be complimentary to the Intuitive project.