J&J’s Auris Acquisition Featured in Forbes Article

Forbes recently featured Auris in an article about Johnson & Johnson's $3.5 billion all-cash acquisition of the company. In the deal, Auris is also eligible to receive up to $2.35 billion in additional milestone payments. This deal will boost J&J's plan to expand its robotics program.

Auris was joined in 2007 by one of the pioneers of the robotic surgery, Dr. Fred Moll and since then Auris has raised over $800 million in debt and equity financing to date. Auris's technology, called the Monarch Platform, received FDA approval for use in diagnostic and therapeutic bronchoscopy in 2018. Pitchbook valued Auris at $2.2 billion following its most recent Series D1 funding round in November.

J&J has sought entry into the robotics market since at least 2015, when they entered into a joint venture with Google-parent Alphabet, creating robotic surgery startup Verb Surgical. J&J has also partnered with Auris in the past, with an agreement to combine J&J's Neuwave platform with the Monarch Platform.

Analyst Joanne Wuensch of BMO Capital Markets said of the acquisition, "Investors have been yearning for an acquisition for JNJ's MedTech." Wuensch also believes that the Monarch Platform will complement J&J's current pulmonary hypertension pharmaceutical division.

The deal will help J&J compete with robotic surgery market leader Intuitive Surgical, who are awaiting FDA approval for a robotic-assisted bronchoscope device similar to Auris's Monarch Platform.

Independent investment banking advisory firm Evercore estimates "a 5x enterprise value-to-normalized sales could put the lung biopsy potential revenue opportunity at $700 million."