Former Google Life Sciences Division and Johnson & Johnson's medical device company will be working together to form a new company to be known as Verb Surgical. With Verily and Ethicon's expertise, the new company will focus on developing medical robots to assist in surgery.
Verb Surgical will combine the expertise from Ethicon's medical devices and Google's ability to gather huge information to develop surgical robots. The aim of the robots are to assist doctors and surgeons in performing minimally invasive to non-invasive operations.
The newly formed company envisions that robots will improve precision and accuracy during surgeries that will reduce physical trauma that the patient experiences. The company's goal is to make robots the best surgical assistants, according to Verb's web page.
Johnson & Johnson states that Verb Surgical has already made progress on the medical robotics platform. The platform is to support surgical instruments that Ethicon develops.
Verb Surgical has already received support from J&J, Verily and Ethicon in both financial and technological aspects. The company will have its headquarters located in Mountain View, California, where Google Campus is located and where the tech hulk's other projects are being developed like artificial intelligence, driverless cars and quantum computers. The newly formed company is headed by Scott Huennekens, former chief executive officer of an intravascular imaging corporation known as Volcano.
Verily Chief Executive Officer Andy Conrad states that Verb will be expected to work with pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, diagnostic and medical device companies in the future. As the company is still a startup, Google executives will sit on Verb's board of directors for the meantime along with members from J&J, Verily and Ethicon.
Huennekens added that the company speaks for itself. It will be dedicated to make a difference in people's lives working hand in hand with surgeons and doctors worldwide. With the spinoff, it cannot be taken for granted that Alphabet Inc. is serious to make an impact in the medical industry. The society will have to wait and see how Verb plans to dominate the medical category and what developments the company will introduce to improve quality of life of the patients all over the world.
