Monarch Platform's Clearance Featured in Fierce BioTech

Fred Moll’s Auris Health has been granted FDA clearance for its surgical robotics platform. The nod clears the Intuitive Surgical founder’s latest venture to sell the device for use in bronchoscopic diagnostic and therapeutic procedures in lung cancer patients.

Auris, formerly known as Auris Surgical Robotics, kept a low profile over its first decade but the few details that leaked out whetted appetites. The startup is founded and run by Moll, who played a key role in making Intuitive Surgical and its da Vinci Surgical System the defining company and device of the first era of robotic surgery. And it has raised a load of cash, with last year’s $280 million series D round moving the total up above $500 million.