Financings in Brief: Intuitive Surgical
This article was originally published in The Gray Sheet
Executive Summary
Intuitive Surgical: Raises $17 mil. in a private placement, bringing to $47 mil. the amount the Mountain View, California-based R&D firm has raised since the beginning of 1997. U.S. clinical trials of Intuitive's tele-robotic instrumentation system in minimally invasive surgery will begin in the second quarter of 1998, Lonnie Smith, president and CEO, reports at a Dec. 2 session of the BancAmerica Robertson Stephens conference in New York City ("The Gray Sheet" Dec. 8, In Brief). The device's three components include a surgeon's control console with 3D visual display, mechanical instrument manipulators positioned over the patient, and surgical instruments designed for use through small (1 cm) incisions. Intuitive plans initially to pursue cardiac surgery indications. The recent financing "will support Intuitive as it transitions from research and development to manufacturing, sales and marketing" of the system, the company says...