Olympus made waves in July when it announced plans to co-found endoluminal surgical robotics company Swan EndoSurgical.
With private equity investment firm Revival Healthcare Capital, Olympus agreed to jointly invest $458 million in the venture, with the goal of potentially creating new, significantly enhanced minimally invasive treatment options for unmet needs. It boosts precision and efficiency in procedures addressing ergonomic strain for healthcare professionals, Olympus said.
Developing an endoluminal robot enables easy maneuvering and flexible arm deployment within the GI tract. It provides the opportunity to deliver safe, effective surgeries while potentially avoiding invasive procedures. The robot could rival the likes of EndoQuest Robotics, which is advancing its own endoluminal system.
Olympus said Swan EndoSurgical has already assembled an experienced leadership team and will be headquartered in the U.S.
Speaking to MassDevice Senior Editor Sean Whooley and DeviceTalks Editorial Director Tom Salemi at AdvaMed’s The MedTech Conference in San Diego, White explained the benefits of the Swan move and what the company looks like moving forward.
The following has been lightly edited for space and clarity.
MassDevice: Explain the Swan EndoSurgical play from the Olympus side.
Bob White: “You know my history, right? A lot of years in soft tissue robots. What that taught me was, when you think about endoluminal robots in the GI tract, first off, nobody’s doing that. There’s a lot of activity in the space because nobody’s doing what we’re setting out to do here with Swan EndoSurgical.
“What we did with Swan was, I think, the best of both worlds. You create a company with Revival Capital that can operate with the speed of a startup, yet with the strength of a company like Olympus. So, you’ve got Olympus proprietary technology involved, and yet you’ve got a standalone company developing this robot that can move with the speed with which we want them to move. That’s one of the lessons I took away from my past experiences. If you’re going to innovate, you’re going to innovate quickly. Figure out what you bring to the table, but figure out what other people can bring to the table as well. That’s why I love what we’re doing with Swan. [It’s a] big technical challenge, a big clinical challenge, a big market challenge. But, we’re the market leader in endoscopy. We own this space. So, of course, this is going to be central to our strategy going forward. You’re going to continue to see me invest in robotics technologies, and I’m super excited about where Swan is going to go.”
If it’s a standalone company, what benefits does this play bring Olympus?
BW: “We have two board seats and an observer. While a standalone company, Swan is using underlying Olympus technology. So, we’re building this off our balance sheet, moving fast, but using the core technology that we have. But, with outside people, which I love, because they’re thinking differently — like a startup company — they’re moving fast.”
Is this structure of a deal the way to go moving forward?
BW: “I think this build-to-buy structure is absolutely the path forward. It’s just because innovation is oftentimes more challenging inside a larger company. [We’re] able to do this outside, yet contributing what makes you special, but doing it in the way a startup would operate. If it works, great. [If it] doesn’t, we’ll go do something else. I just think you’ll see us do that. And I do think that’s going to be a future for innovation in medtech.”
What is the technology at play with Swan?
BW: “Think about the challenge of going through a lumen — long distances with flexible endoscopes that can do both therapeutic and diagnostic. It’s one thing to go do diagnostic, it’s another thing to go and do both with therapeutic. That is revolutionary technology that exists. Contrast it to soft tissue robots with hard, fixed scopes that go into single ports and then move around. This has to be able to move through the lumen and into the GI tract. It’s fundamentally different, which is why we’re turning to the outside to think about how best to incubate this technology. Because it’s underlying Olympus technology, we’ll have some of the core things we bring to the table, but it’s also different. It’s different than anything Olympus has ever done. It’s different than anything that’s in this space today.”
It’s obviously very early in the process, but is there any expectation on future milestones or commercialization?
BW: “Way too early. Way too early. I love the question. We just saw some tough technical challenges. But, you think about all the things that robotics has brought other fields, ergonomic benefits, right for the surgeon, visualization benefits, there are new tools that are going to be involved. All of that is being created. So it’s a little early to talk about commercialization.”
