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Health Tech Bi-weekly round up: 5 July

Hotwire Global

In this week’s health tech round up, we take a look at CMR Surgical’s latest partnership with LifeHealthcare to expand its Versius robotic surgery system to Australia; Boston Scientific’s $90m deal with Varian Medical Systems to treat cancer; Lightspeed’s $27m Series B extension round into medication app, Calm; as well as NHS Wales’ £39m partnership with Microsoft in a transformation towards digital healthcare.

CMR Surgical and LifeHealthcare bring Versius robotic surgery to Australia

British medical device company, CMR Surgical has teamed up with LifeHealthcare to bring the Versius robotic keyhole surgery system to Australia and New Zealand. The Versius system was awarded the European CE mark in March, and is due to launch in Europe later this year, having recently completed its first round of initial surgical procedures in humans. The system is designed to make keyhole surgery more straightforward, using individual arms to operate on the patient, with 3D imagery of the surgery. CMR Surgical CEO Martin Frost commented: “Australia is a globally recognised centre for surgical innovation and a mature market for surgical robotics – making it a great fit for introducing Versius. By bringing a flexible, cost-effective robotic system to Australia we aim to expand the rates of minimal access surgery.”

Boston Scientific signs bead agreement with Varian

Boston Scientific has signed an agreement with cancer care solutions provider, Varian Medical Systems to divest products designed to treat arteriovenous malformations and hypervascular tumours. The $90m deal covers Boston Scientific’s drug-loadable Oncozene and Embozene Tandem microsphere and its Embozene bead products. Varian expects the acquisition will boost its new oncology platform while leveraging the products’ regulatory clearances in over 35 global markets. Varian Medical Systems president and CEO Dow Wilson said: “This acquisition from Boston Scientific will strengthen Varian’s growing position in the high-value interventional oncology segment and is consistent with our long-term strategy to become a global leader in multidisciplinary, integrated cancer solutions.”

Lightspeed invests in $27m extension round in Calm app

Lightspeed has invested $27m into a Series B extension round in meditation app, Calm. The funding will help the subscription app further expand from guided meditations to self-help classes, stretching routines, relaxing music, breathing exercises, stories and readings designed to lull the user to sleep. Calm’s ‘Sleep Stories’ feature launched last year and currently has over 150 million listens from its 2 million paid subscribers and 50 million downloads. The investment by Lightspeed will allow Calm to “continue to double down on entertainment”, said Calm’s head of communications Alexia Marchetti.

NHS Wales signs £39m three-year deal with Microsoft

NHS Wales has signed a £39m three-year deal with Microsoft, which will provide 100,000 NHS staff access to Office 365. Medical professionals will be able to communicate and share information with better collaboration and greater ease. Andrew Griffiths, director of the NHS Wales Informatics Service, said: “This new national agreement is part of our commitment to refresh NHS Wales IT infrastructure and ensure it supports the transformational changes taking place across health and social care. It moves our digital estate away from locally managed services and into cloud-based services, delivering efficiencies and economies of scale.” NHS Scotland signed a similar “landmark agreement” in November 2018.

Well since you’ve read this far…