Focusing on the research and development of surgical robots through natural orifices, "Ouchang Medical" has completed tens of millions of yuan in Pre-A round financing | 36Kr exclusive.
36Kr has learned that Suzhou Ouchang Medical Technology Co., Ltd. has recently completed tens of millions of Pre-A round financing. This round of financing is led by Rong'an Venture Capital, with Suzhou Medical Device Industry Development Group (MedPark) and Jiangsu Gongda Collaborative Medical Robot Research Institute as co-investors. Shuangcheng Capital serves as the exclusive financial advisor. The raised funds will be mainly used for the research and development, production, and marketing of its related products such as natural orifice transluminal endoscopic surgery (NOTES) robots.
Ouchang Medical was established in the Suzhou High-tech Zone in 2021, dedicated to the research, development, production, and sales of NOTES robots. The founding team comes from the State Key Laboratory of Robotics System of Harbin Institute of Technology. They have participated in the research and development of the "Minimally Invasive Laparoscopic Surgical Robot System" under the "863" Program and the research and development iterations of the Kangduo robot products. Team members have achieved important research results in the research and application of cutting-edge and core key technologies such as advanced robot structure design, medical robot perception and control, and flexible robot system integration.
At the beginning of its establishment, Ouchang Medical chose to layout in the cutting-edge direction of NOTES robots, which is characterized by the intervention of surgical instruments and tools through the natural orifices of the human body to achieve the purpose of assisting doctors in examination and treatment. Compared with laparoscopic surgical robots, NOTES robots have the characteristics of less trauma to patients, shorter postoperative recovery time, and lower incidence of complications. It is the mainstream trend in the future development of surgical robots.
Currently, the first NOTES robot product launched by Ouchang Medical is the Sirius Pulmonary Surgery Robot System, which is mainly used for lung nodule biopsy and early screening and treatment of lung cancer. Globally, the number of patients with lung cancer and the mortality rate are both at the top. However, the early screening of lung cancer and lung nodule biopsy are not yet mature. Conventional percutaneous puncture methods are prone to cause sequelae such as pneumothorax and bleeding. While lung nodule biopsy based on bronchoscopy faces problems such as the size limitation of the bronchoscope making it difficult to reach the peripheral lung, the complex structure of the bronchial tree making it inconvenient for doctors to find the path and operate, and the respiratory and physiological movements making the lesion drift and difficult to puncture.
To solve these problems, the Sirius Pulmonary Surgery Robot System is based on navigation and path planning, and intervenes the extremely thin bronchoscope into the peripheral lung to achieve assisted diagnosis and treatment of small lung lesions, thereby improving the success rate and diagnosis rate of lung nodule biopsy.
It is introduced that the Sirius Pulmonary Surgery Robot is a NOTES robot system that integrates software, hardware, and algorithms and is purely independently developed. This system has core technical advantages in many aspects such as navigation, image algorithm, catheter control, robot system integration, and operating tools.
In the future, relying on the team's deep research and development background in the past, Ouchang Medical will focus on the research and development of pulmonary surgery robots and the development of corresponding supporting tools, gradually improve the diagnosis rate and success rate of lung nodule biopsy and early screening of lung cancer, and further realize the ablation treatment solution for in-depth integration of lung cancer tumors.