- 2 days ago
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00This is a story about losing the race, at least at the beginning.
00:04Inventors become household names when they do something for the first time.
00:08Thomas Edison and the light bulb, the Wright brothers and the first manned flight.
00:12With time, their names have become synonymous with their innovations
00:16because of the leaps in technology that made their products viable.
00:20Everyone always wants to be first.
00:22But can it sometimes pay off to be slower out of the gate?
00:26Johnson & Johnson hopes so, at least in the fast-growing field of robotic surgery.
00:35I want to introduce you to Otava.
00:38Last week, Johnson & Johnson got the green light from the FDA
00:41to take its robotic surgery device, Otava, to market.
00:45It's the latest move by a company whose legacy traces back to the 19th century.
00:51Johnson & Johnson was founded by three brothers in 1886,
00:56when they created ready-to-use sterile surgical dressings.
01:00But the original Johnson brothers could not have anticipated
01:03how far surgery would come over the next 140 years.
01:08Otava is Rocco DeBarnardis' baby.
01:11He has been with the MedTech division of J&J for 14 years.
01:16DeBarnardis gave us a first-hand look at what the new platform can do
01:20at J&J's campus in Santa Clara.
01:22The ergonomics was an important element, you know.
01:26Definitely, there's an improvement where you move as a surgeon
01:29from bedside to behind the console.
01:32Meet Otava.
01:33J&J has traveled a long road
01:36to get to the newly approved version of Otava.
01:39Although it has sold robotic systems for other procedures,
01:42it started its pursuit of soft tissue robotic surgery 11 years ago,
01:47when it teamed up with Alphabet to create Verb Surgical,
01:51which it ultimately took over.
01:53In 2019, the company bought robotics surgery startup Auras Health
01:58for $3.4 billion,
01:59and subsequently invested billions more in the effort.
02:03Then came its first version of Otava with six arms,
02:06but suffered a $900 million delay
02:09before getting approved in a simpler form by the FDA.
02:12It's not been a linear journey, you know, for us,
02:17but, you know, I'm really proud of what we have accomplished,
02:23particularly over the last five years,
02:25how the technology has evolved
02:27and what we're going to be bringing to market anytime soon.
02:30We acknowledged that there were some technical challenges at that time,
02:34and we went back to the surgeons that I was talking about,
02:37and that we are very happy with the decision we made at that time.
02:42While Johnson & Johnson has been developing its version
02:45of soft tissue robotic surgery,
02:47others have forged ahead.
02:49The leader in the field is Intuitive,
02:52whose DaVinci system was first approved in 2000
02:54for urologic surgical procedures.
02:57Global data estimated that Intuitive
02:59held around 80% of the market in 2024,
03:02with the rest shared by firms like Medtronic and CMR Surgical.
03:08J&J knows it's starting from behind in the race,
03:11but it believes Otava is a very different kind of competitor,
03:15one that will help it move up the leaderboard.
03:18As you know well, you're not first into this space.
03:20There are other people who are fairly well entrenched.
03:22Are you happy with your position of being second or third or fourth?
03:26Well, first, we're very happy that we're bringing
03:30a new category-defining innovation to the market.
03:34Hani Abou-Halka is in charge of the company's surgical technologies,
03:37including Otava.
03:39That group falls under its Medtech division,
03:41which made up a third of Johnson & Johnson's overall revenue in 2025.
03:46If you look at globally, there's maybe 40 companies with robots,
03:50but all of them are either stuck in two different architectures,
03:55either modular or boom.
03:57And the biggest difference here is our robot is the table.
04:01The arms are integrated.
04:03You walk into the OR.
04:05If they're not deployed, you don't see it.
04:07And when it's needed, it comes on.
04:09And you'll tell me, is that a big deal?
04:11I can tell you, when I started my career in J&J,
04:13I remember the first day I was in OR,
04:15and I felt it's, without even noticing it,
04:18there is tension and friction between the surgical team and the machines.
04:22And I've always had this idea that we can do better
04:25and we should do better, and I believe we did.
04:27Johnson & Johnson believes it has a better way
04:30to address robotic soft tissue surgery,
04:33one that will appeal particularly where space in the operating room
04:36is at a premium.
04:37But it also sees the overall robotic surgery market
04:41as being in its early stages,
04:43providing an opportunity for its product to grow as the market does.
04:47Robotic surgery, if you look at the total addressable market,
04:51the way we look at it,
04:52has 8% penetration around the world.
04:55It's a fast-growing segment of the market,
05:00definitely one that we see more and more adoption for,
05:03and there is more and more companies like us
05:07willing to contribute and bring meaningful solutions to market.
05:12One of the big benefits of the robot
05:15is that it is collecting a lot of the surgeon information.
05:19Dr. Christy Hawley is an assistant professor of surgery
05:22at the University of Colorado,
05:24and just recently led the department's annual
05:27robotic acute care surgery course.
05:29Robotic surgery definitely adds another element of complexity
05:34to general surgery training.
05:36The resident physicians are being asked to not only learn
05:41open operations and laparoscopic operations with straight sticks,
05:45but now they are also being asked to learn
05:48how to operate on a robotic console.
05:51At my institution,
05:52I'm the director of robotic surgery education
05:55for about 80 general surgery residents.
05:59And so really thinking about how to train them
06:02on the platform is challenging.
06:04Another challenge for robotic surgery
06:06is the misnomer of the role of the robots.
06:09Dr. Hawley says they don't perform surgeries on their own.
06:13They are meant to be used by human surgeons.
06:16I often get asked whether robots are going to take over
06:21our jobs as surgeons,
06:22and I believe that would be very difficult to accomplish.
06:26Being a surgeon involves patient selection,
06:30diagnosing a patient,
06:32and ensuring that you've built that trust
06:35with a patient to go to the operating room.
06:37But I also think that there's the possibility
06:40of these robots performing components of the operation.
06:44I'll give you one example.
06:46A simple task like suturing.
06:48If a program was able to actually see
06:51different pieces of tissue,
06:53and you as a surgeon sitting at the console
06:55say, I'd like to suture this to this
06:57and point to the robot and show it,
06:59then maybe it's possible that that component
07:02of the operation could be done by a robot.
07:04But that's certainly not something that's going on today.
07:07So I wouldn't say that every surgery
07:09necessarily should be robotic.
07:12I think it takes a very well-trained surgeon
07:14in both robotic surgery, laparoscopy,
07:17and open operations to decide patient selection.
07:21So which patient is going to benefit
07:24from the robotic platform
07:26for what type of surgery?
07:29Robotic surgery may not be right for every procedure,
07:32but where it is used,
07:34Dr. Hawley says it fills a gap
07:36for both patients and the hospitals
07:38that use the new technology.
07:39There have been multiple studies
07:41showing that laparoscopic
07:42and minimally invasive surgery
07:44do have many benefits to patients.
07:47One of the biggest benefits is decreased pain.
07:51As you can imagine,
07:53an open operation requires a large incision
07:56and can be very painful.
07:58So if you have less pain,
08:00you can recover more quickly,
08:02go back to work more quickly,
08:04and get out of the hospital faster.
08:06And so one piece is that
08:09minimally invasive surgery
08:10can actually decrease your hospital length of stay,
08:13which is very important
08:14to both patients and hospital administrators.
08:18Overall, when choosing robotic surgery specifically,
08:21it really depends on patient selection,
08:25the operative team you have available,
08:29if the platform is available in your center,
08:32and of course,
08:33how well the surgeon is trained
08:35on the robotic platform.
08:37If I do not have a resident,
08:39I'm an academic surgeon,
08:41and so we have residents
08:42in our operating room
08:44to help us operate
08:45as the attending surgeon.
08:47And it's very beneficial
08:49that if a resident's not available
08:51on the robotic platform,
08:53there are less needs for assistance.
08:57It's a lot easier
08:58to just place the ports on your own
09:00and then operate robotically.
09:02I have spoke to many surgeons
09:03in the community
09:04or in rural settings
09:06who don't have surgical trainees
09:09or their systems
09:10really can't afford surgical assists.
09:12And so the robotic platform
09:15can be another way
09:15to make us more autonomous
09:17and be able to rely on ourselves
09:19to perform operations in totality.
09:22Johnson & Johnson is hopeful,
09:23not just that it can catch up
09:25in robotic soft tissue surgery,
09:27but that it can make a large
09:29and successful business of it.
09:30That will require further FDA approvals
09:33for specific procedures down the road.
09:35But Johnson & Johnson is confident
09:37that those will be forthcoming.
09:38The FDA have been incredible partners
09:40on this journey.
09:42We've been back and forth with them.
09:44The people at the FDA
09:44have been incredible professionals
09:46from day one.
09:47They're trying to do what's best
09:48for patients and for health care.
09:50And from our perspective is
09:52we're trying to move with precision
09:54and with speed.
09:55Our intention is to be a leader
09:56in surgical robotics.
09:57And to do that,
09:58we need incredible technology innovation,
10:00which we have.
10:01Then our next submission we announced
10:03was in an inguinal hernia.
10:06And subsequently after that,
10:07we're going to have multiple submissions
10:09to be able to bring, again,
10:11multiple geographies
10:11and multiple specialties.
10:12And that's what we're planning to do.
10:14If you just take one step back
10:15and understand that we chose
10:17to come to the U.S. first
10:19for a couple of reasons.
10:20One, it's the largest robotic market.
10:22Two, it's a sign of confidence
10:24of our program
10:25and how differentiated it is
10:27that it can take something
10:28that's been there for a while.
10:30As you know, surgical robotics
10:33is not new.
10:34Otava is.
10:35And that's why we're coming here first.
10:37And hopefully we'll expand
10:39quickly after that
10:40to key markets like Japan and Europe.
10:42So give me a sense, again,
10:44in success,
10:44how big this could be
10:45for Johnson & Johnson.
10:46How do you measure that?
10:47First of all,
10:48start with you.
10:48You're starting in the United States.
10:50What is the potential
10:50of the United States
10:51as opposed to outside
10:52the United States?
10:53I mean, as I said,
10:54it's incredibly exciting
10:56for us, for J&J.
10:57In terms of,
10:59from a financial perspective,
11:00we expect this to be material
11:02towards the end of the decade.
11:03As the saying goes,
11:05the pioneer takes the arrows,
11:06but the settler takes the land.
11:08Sometimes we're not first,
11:10but when it's said and done,
11:12we're best.
11:12We brought innovation
11:13that no one can really match.
11:15And what excites me here
11:17is that this is still early
11:19and we're bringing something
11:20that's completely differentiated
11:21and it's going to help us
11:22take robotic surgeries
11:23to the future.
Comments