Louisville medical device maker Bolder Surgical completes milestone deal with Intuitive Surgical

LOUISVILLE — A collaboration between medical device makers Intuitive Surgical Inc. (Nasdaq: ISRG) and Louisville-based Bolder Surgical Inc. received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last week for a new generator for robotic surgery devices.

The FDA cleared a generator developed between the two companies to power Intuitive’s blood vessel sealer tools using low-voltage electricity.

Bolder spokeswoman Donna Ford-Serbu said the company designed the software for use in the generator and the vessel-sealing tools that Intuitive makes.

“It is our technology, our algorithm to help with their vessel sealing technology,” she said.

Intuitive makes the da Vinci line of consoles that perform surgeries at the command of a human surgeon. The robotic arms supposedly smooth out the surgeon’s movements and reduce the chance of accidentally cutting flesh that isn’t part of the surgery, but have also been blamed in causing internal burns to patients due to stray electrical currents.

Ford-Serbu declined to say how much the company would receive from hitting the milestone or how much the overall collaboration agreement with Intuitive is worth. However, she said the agreement was made as part of a larger $27 million capital raise from January in which the company rebranded itself from previous name JustRight Surgical.

The company will receive royalty payments from generator sales, and Ford-Serbu said Bolder is continuing to work with Intuitive on other projects.

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