Medrobotics puts surgical robotics IP up for sale

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Tiger Group and Liquidity Services today announced the availability of all surgical robotics assets from a Medrobotics plant for sale. The companies say they’re offering all assets from the fully furnished, 40,000-square-foot plant in Raynham, Massachusetts. Assets, including surgical robotics platforms used by nearly 30 hospitals around the world, are available in a turnkey sale.

Medrobotics boasted an FDA-cleared, CE-marked surgical robotic platform for several years. The company designed its Flex system for use in minimally invasive surgical procedures. Specifically, it developed Flex to access hard-to-reach anatomy in otolaryngology, colorectal and gastroenterology procedures.

However, the company hit a number of stumbling blocks over the past several years, leading to the sale of these assets.

We reached out to former Medrobotics CEO Samuel Straface on LinkedIn for potential comment on the asset sale. This story may be updated.

A look at how Medrobotics got here

The local NBC 10 I-Team reported in March 2020 that the company faced state fines for not paying employees over more than one month. Officials reportedly attributed issues to a cash flow problem and promised the payments, plus a day off and $2,000 bonus once investor funds came through. However, according to NBC 10, those payments never came through. The state fine

Maura Healey, then the Massachusetts Attorney General, levied a $1.2 million citation on March 4 for failure to pay timely wages.

Medrobotics faced further troubles later in 2020, with courts agreeing with Endobotics in a patent spat against the company. Endobotics first filed a lawsuit against the company in early 2019, followed by additional suits in 2020.

In December 2020, the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware and the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts granted two judgments in favor of Endobotics lawsuits alleging patent infringement and Defend Trade Secrets Act, Massachusetts trade secret law, breach of contract, unfair competition and state law tort claims.

The courts ruled Medrobotics owed nearly $192 million in an award to Endobotics.

On Jan. 24, 2022, Medrobotics filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in Massachusetts. According to Law360, in March 2022, Pennsylvania physicians who invested in the company said Medrobotics executives hid and mishandled the Endobotics lawsuits that “effectively sank the company.” Those shareholders filed a derivative suit in Pennsylvania state court.

More on the asset sale

John Coelho, senior director, Tiger Commercial & Industrial, said in a news release that the sale includes 22 terabytes worth of technical specs, customer lists and other valuable IP, plus $12 million in hard assets. That includes 23 complete Flex and next-gen Flex360 robotics systems.

“This turnkey sale represents an extraordinary growth opportunity for buyers that could include medical device-makers, robotics companies or venture capital firms,” Coelho said.

In addition to the robotics systems, the plant has general-utility medical, lab, assembly/manufacturing, plant support and material-handling assets. Coelho says that includes state-of-the-art 3D printers and a full machine shop. It also includes microscopes, incubators, lab ovens, test and measurement equipment and pallet jacks and racking.

“These systems, which are FDA-approved, were the first surgical platform to offer a steerable and shapeable robotic scope, which allows surgeons to operate on parts of the body that, in many cases, would otherwise have been unreachable,” said Nick Jimenez, VP of global business development at Liquidity Services. “The equipment and IP available in this turnkey opportunity could greatly benefit an expanding medical robotics enterprise.”

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared on sister website MassDevice.