Mazor Robotics earned an FDA nod for its software that helps surgeons plan spinal deformity corrections and spinal alignment for procedures using the company’s robotic-assisted guidance platform for spine surgery.
The Mazor X Align software joins other modules in the company’s preoperative analytics software suite, Mazor said in a statement. It allows surgeons to produce a three-dimensional spinal alignment plan for individual patients.
The 3D plan models the entire spine and provides a preoperative estimate of how the surgery will affect the patient’s posture, Mazor said.
The company will debut the software in an early release next month. It will follow with a widespread rollout in the second half of the year, according to the statement.
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Mazor made a pair of co-promotion and co-development deals worth up to $50 million with Medtronic last year. At the time, it picked up $11.9 million in return for 4% of its shares. When it launched its Mazor X guidance platform in July, it met a milestone and collected $20 million from the device giant.
The Mazor X system is designed to enhance “predictability and patient benefit, through the combination of analytical tools, multiple-source data, precision guidance, optical tracking, intra-op verification, and connectivity technologies,” Mazor said.
While Intuitive Surgical has enjoyed a sizable head start in the robotic surgery space, Medtronic is working on its own surgical robot, which is “likely” to hit the market next year, according to analysts. Johnson & Johnson and Verily’s Verb Surgical is also developing surgical robotics, as are Hansen Medical and Auris Surgical Robotics, which announced last year that they would merge.