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Intuitive Surgical acquires Schölly Fiberoptic’s robotic endoscope business

By Steve Crowe | July 16, 2019


Intuitive Surgical da Vinci system. | Credit: Intuitive Surgical

Intuitive Surgical, the pioneer of robotic-assisted, minimally invasive surgery, has acquired Denzlingen, Germany-based Schölly Fiberoptic‘s robotic endoscope business. The financial terms of the acquisition were not detailed.

Intuitive said the acquisition will integrate Schölly’s robotic endoscope manufacturing line and two Schölly sites into Intuitive operations:

  • The robotic-related manufacturing line from Denzlingen, Germany
  • The manufacturing site in Biebertal, Germany
  • The repair site in Worcester, Massachusetts

Intuitive will integrate into its team approximately 200 staff from these three sites over the next 18 months. Speaking to investors in April 2019 during the Q1 earnings call, Intuitive CEO Gary Guthart mentioned imaging as one of the priority areas for R&D investment.

Schölly, which has been a supplier for Intuitive for 20 years, has designed and manufactured several imaging systems for Intuitive’s flagship da Vinci surgical systems. Intuitive said the vendor relationship is slated to continue with Schölly’s fiberoptic business.

“Schölly has been an important and valued vendor for Intuitive since the very early days of the company,” said Brian Miller, Intuitive senior vice president for systems and vision. “Leading visualization has been a core pillar of our company and we expect it to continue to be important going forward. It makes sense to bring the teams together for both organizations.”

In addition to bringing important aspects of da Vinci’s visualization system under Intuitive, the acquisition will help strengthen Intuitive’s supply chain, and increase its manufacturing capacity for imaging products.

Largest Robotics Investments During 1st Half of 2019

CompanyFunding (M$)Lead InvestorDateTechnology
Intuitive Surgical 2000Stock Repurchase2/1/19Surgical Robots
Cruise1150Honda Motor Corp.5/7/19Autonomous Vehicles
Uber ATG1000SoftBank Vision Fund4/18/19Autonomous Vehicles
Nuro.ai940SoftBank Vision Fund2/11/19Autonomous Vehicles
Horizon Robotics600SK China2/27/19AI/IOT
Aurora Innovation600Amazon2/7/19Autonomous Vehicles
Weltmeister Motor450Baidu Inc.3/11/19Autonomous Vehicles
Cloudminds300SoftBank Vision Fund3/26/19Service Robots
Zipline190TPG5/17/19Drone Delivery
Innoviz Technologies170China Merchants Capital3/26/19LiDAR
Think Surgical1343/11/19Surgical Robots
Beijing Auto AI Technology104Robert Bosch Venture Capital1/24/19AI
Black Sesame Technologies100Legend Capital4/15/2019Machine Learning
Ekso Bionics Holdings100Zhejiang Youchuang Venture Capital Investment Co.1/30/19Exoskeletons
TUSimple95Sina Corp2/13/19Autonomous Vehicles
Ouster60Runway Growth Capital3/25/19LiDAR
NASN Automotive59.6Matrix Partners China1/30/19Autonomous Vehicles
HistoSonics54Varian Medical4/8/19Medical Robots
Ike52Bain Capital Ventures2/5/19Autonomous Vehicles
Enflame43.4Redpoint China Ventures6/6/2019AI Chipmaker

“Application-specific and advanced image quality is our passion and the key for successful and safe minimally invasive surgery,” said Prof. Dr. Holger Reinecke, CEO of Schölly. “We have a long, successful relationship with Intuitive, and we share the common mission to advance health care by providing state-of-the-art technologies and innovative product features. This transaction will allow Schölly to focus more strategically on our global visualization business and ensure sustainable growth.”

Intuitive has been busy in 2019. In February, the FDA cleared Intuitive’s Ion system, which is designed to enable doctors to conduct minimally-invasive biopsies deep within the lung. Ion includes an articulating robotic catheter with an outer diameter of only 3.5 mm that is able to move 180 degrees in all directions, allowing a physician to navigate the catheter through small and tortuous airways to reach nodules.

In March, Intuitive won another indication from the FDA for its da Vinci SP robot-assisted surgery device. The FDA added single-port radical tonsillectomy and tongue base resection procedures to the mix.

Intuitive also raised the largest investment of any robotics company in the first half of 2019. It raised $2 billion via a stock repurchase in February.

About The Author

Steve Crowe

Steve Crowe is Editor of The Robot Report and co-chair of the Robotics Summit & Expo. He joined WTWH Media in January 2018 after spending four-plus years as Managing Editor of Robotics Trends Media. He can be reached at [email protected]

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