The last few years have seen some major changes in the surgical robotics landscape.
We saw the surge in investments into surgical robots that then whimpered out as the dawning reality of what those companies were up against hit home.
We saw some companies float on the stock market as SPACS to have a surge and then a whimper.
We’ve seen small companies launch with a flurry and then meet the realities of the market and drop off the pace.
We’ve seen some long standing competitors continually struggle to get sustained traction in the space.
We saw Medtronic go big and bold with HUGO and then meet market reality and seemingly pull back.
And we’ve seen the great hope of JNJ and Verb, then 6 arm Ottava, then 4 arm Ottava then delay, then delay.
And just this year we’ve seen Asensus (former Transenterix, Former SOFAR) promise the launch of LUNA to replace the aging Senhance - which has resulted in the first of the “Tower” companies making a move to acquire them, in what many call a “Fire sale.”
We see a possible westward march by several of the da Vinci clones coming from China (there’s a lot) and even Japan with Hinotori.
But the big (and long awaited news) was the play by Intuitive - the undisputed leader of the soft tissue robotics space - and they dropped da Vinci 5 - propelling them further into the lead for the next decade.