Rochester, Minn.-based Mayo Clinic has obtained a stake in Endiatx, a startup making a pill-sized robot to diagnose digestive conditions, under a know-how licensing agreement with the company.
As part of the agreement, Endiatx will get access to Mayo Clinic clinicians and their knowledge. The company is developing robot pills that can be swallowed and move inside the stomach on their own, so providers can do upper endoscopies via a Zoom-like telemedicine platform.
"We were proud to give some equity to Mayo Clinic, and it means that we can co-develop this technology," Endiatix CEO Torrey Smith told Medical Design & Outsourcing, noting that it's a 15-year deal. "We're not having them develop intellectual property, but what we are doing is having them coach us clinically. Basically, this is a chance to make sure that the tech that we are developing is exactly what gastroenterologists actually need."
"The technology … marks the beginning of a new category in healthcare: microrobotics inside the human body," Mr. Smith said in a Jan. 4 company news release.