Shanghai, China, April 29, 2020 – MicroPort Scientific Corporation ("MicroPort®") announced today that it has entered definitive agreements to lead a strategic investment of up to €40 million in Robocath, a France based private company that designs, develops and commercializes cardiovascular robotic systems for the treatment of vascular diseases. Other investors in the round will include new investors Zhejiang Silk Road Fund, Luxembourg CLIIF managed under TUS-Holdings, CS Group (Holding), and Anaxago as well as existing Robocath investors.
In connection with this strategic investment, MicroPort® and Robocath have also entered into a binding term sheet to form a China-based joint venture company (the "JV") in order to: (i) receive National Medical Products Administration of China ("NMPA") regulatory approval and commercialize Robocath's existing robotic systems and cassettes; (ii) set up manufacturing production for cassettes and the assembly of robots systems to be distributed in Greater China; and (iii) carry out research and development activities related to next generation long-distance, remote control over 5G network technologies and develop artificial intelligence algorithms to be used with Robocath robot systems.
"We believe that the future growth of medical device therapies will be driven by innovative robotics platform technologies to facilitate procedures and open up next generation capabilities such as remote and AI," stated Dr. Alex He, General Manager of MicroPort® MedBot (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (a robotics subsidiary of MicroPort®), "We are thrilled to partner with Robocath to commercialize its highly innovative proprietary vascular robotics platform in the China market.”
Founded in 2009, Robocath designs, develops and commercializes robotic solutions to treat vascular diseases. The company's first robot system called R-One™ was designed to assist interventional cardiologists in stenting (angioplasty) by enabling precision technologies that complement existing methods. Due to its open architecture, R-One™ is compatible with market-leading interventional devices and cath labs. In a prospective, randomized, controlled pre-clinical trial, R-One™ demonstrated safety and efficacy as it achieved 100% technical procedure success and no MACE events. R-One™ received the CE mark in February 2019 and is the first European robotic solution to obtain the CE mark in the field of interventional cardiology. Currently R-One™ is available in Europe and Africa.
"Robocath has achieved another milestone in this important transaction," Dr. Phillippe Bencteux, Founder and President of Robocath, "We have secured significant funding to advance the development and commercialization activities for R-One. In addition, we have opened the China market and partnered with the best strategic partner for China in MicroPort®. We look forward to introducing our vascular robotics platform in the China market.”