What will this mean for DePuy-Synthes?
Johnson & Johnson will acquire surgical robotics company Auris Health (Bloomberg)
Johnson & Johnson has agreed to buy surgical robotics company Auris Health Inc. for about $3.4 billion in cash, in a deal that would give the drug giant a lung-cancer diagnostic and treatment tool.
Under the terms of the deal, announced Wednesday, J&J could also make additional payments of up to $2.35 billion to Auris based on milestones, the people said. Auris, a closely held firm led by industry veteran Fred Moll, has developed robotic surgical scopes operated with a handheld device that are steered into patients’ lungs to identify cancerous tumors.
Auris will be part of J&J’s medical-devices division. The world’s largest maker of health-care products, J&J also has a robotic-surgery company called Verb Surgical Inc. that it formed with Verily Life Sciences, part of Google parent Alphabet Inc., in late 2015.
“What we’re trying to really garner is to convene this community of world class robotics expertise,” Ashley McEvoy, chairman of J&J’s medical-devices unit, said. Bloomberg reported in January that J&J...
