Wednesday, May 16, 2018
Auris Health, Inc. today announced that the company has entered into a cooperative development and commercialization agreement with NeuWave™ Medical, Inc., a subsidiary of Ethicon, Inc., and part of the Johnson & Johnson Medical Devices Companies, with the goal of enabling robotically assisted bronchoscopic ablation of lesions in the lung.
The agreement calls for co-development of integrated systems for robotic control, navigation, and application of microwave ablation delivered via bronchoscopes. A bronchoscope, equipped with a small camera and an accessory channel, allows tools to enter the lungs through the mouth. The co-development agreement also covers technology optimization and procedure development.
Auris Health’s revolutionary Monarch™ Platform, the first FDA-cleared robotic platform for diagnostic and therapeutic bronchoscopic procedures, is designed to allow physicians to diagnose small, hard-to-reach peripheral lung nodules with greater precision than ever before. Ethicon’s NeuWave™ Flex Microwave Ablation System, the only FDA-cleared flexible microwave ablation probe, is an evolution of the NeuWave™ percutaneous microwave ablation system used successfully throughout North America, Europe and Asia. The new Flex system is indicated for soft tissue ablation in percutaneous (via an introducer) procedures, open surgical procedures, as well as in procedures in which the target tissue is accessed via a lumen or scope, such as an endoscope.
“From the beginning, our vision has been to create a platform capable of enabling advanced diagnosis and therapy for a spectrum of disease, using the least-invasive approach,” said Frederic Moll, M.D., co-founder and CEO of Auris Health. “We are honored to have Ethicon as a partner. Through this collaboration, we believe we are taking a significant first step together toward making the goal of diagnosing and treating lung cancer, all through the body’s natural openings, an eventual reality.”
“For those treating people with suspicious nodules in the lung, the holy grail is to one day be able to detect and treat the disease in a single procedure,” said Kazuhiro Yasufuku, M.D., Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of Toronto. “When this option becomes a reality, we may see many patients seek early screening and minimally invasive treatment.”
Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide. More patients die every year from the disease than from prostate, breast, and colon cancers combined.
