Medtronic has acquired Netherlands-based Fortimedix Surgical in a bid to boost its surgical and endoscopy portfolio.
Fortimedix Surgical made the announcement on LinkedIn, writing: “We are pleased to share that Fortimedix Surgical was acquired by Medtronic. A unique opportunity to leverage our articulating instrument technology for application across patient therapies. We look forward to joining Medtronic.”
No details of the acquisition have been disclosed by either company. Medtronic’s surgical and endoscopy portfolio has experienced a sales stagnation in the last quarter (ending 26 July 2024), with the company reporting a 0.4% decrease in sales.
GlobalData analysis projects the market for endoscopy devices to grow from being worth approximately $16.7bn in 2024 to over $28.9bn by 2033. This increase is driven by the increased adoption of minimally invasive and robotic surgeries.
Fortimedix Surgical boasts a portfolio of articulating instruments that can be used in endoscopic, minimally invasive, and robotic surgeries. The company notes that its robotic applications include multi-port and single-port soft tissue robotics, flexible robotics, and robotic endoscopic surgery.
Medtronic has invested in developing its endoscopy portfolio. Last December, the medtech giant partnered with Cosmo Pharmaceuticals’s subsidiary, Cosmo Intelligent Medical Devices to integrate AI into its GI Genius intelligent endoscopy module. Medtronic also collaborated with NVIDIA to include AI in GI modules.
Medtronic also suffered a setback after the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a Class I recall for its brain surgery software. The recall was issued for four separate versions of Medtronic’s StealthStation S8 application, designed to be used with a surgical drill, after customer complaints about a software error causing numbers or letters to be missing from the displayed text and replaced by a space. This could cause the surgeon to use an incorrect measurement for placement of the biopsy tip stop during navigation in neurosurgery.
Medtronic’s competitor Johnson and Johnson (J&J) MedTech has also observed sales stagnation in Q2 this year. J&J MedTech reported $1.3bn in surgery sales for Q2 2024, a 1.9% decline compared to the same period in 2023.
J&J MedTech’s big play in the surgical segment is its Ottava robotic surgical system. Earlier this month, the company received an investigational device exemption from the US Food and Drug Administration to conduct clinical trials for the technology.
