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Levita’s Magnetic-Assisted Robotic Surgical procedure (MARS) platform | Photograph courtesy of Levita

Levita Magnetics stated it has raised $26 million to fund regulatory and business progress on its Magnetic-Assisted Robotic Surgical procedure (MARS) platform.

The Menlo Park, California-based robotic surgical procedure system developer additionally appointed Maria Sainz as chair of its board of administrators.

The MARS platform is designed to assist surgeons carry out extra high-volume belly procedures utilizing fewer incisions and fewer personnel.

Levita gained FDA de novo classification for its Levita Magnetic Surgical System in 2015. That handheld system makes use of a magnet positioned outdoors of a affected person’s stomach to regulate a magnetic grasper contained in the physique throughout surgical procedure, requiring just one incision as an alternative of two.

The system requires somebody to carry the exterior magnet whereas the surgeon is working, however the brand new MARS platform assists with the exterior magnet and provides the surgeon extra management and visibility. The system has a compact footprint meant for outpatient or same-day discharge procedures.

The Levita Magnetics’ Magnetic Surgical System makes use of a magnet outdoors of the physique to eradicate one of many incisions in high-volume belly procedures. | Picture courtesy of Levita Magnetics

Levita introduced the primary procedures with its MARS system in July 2021. The corporate now says greater than 30 procedures have been carried out with the investigational system in a medical trial in Chile, together with sleeve gastrectomy and same-day discharge cholecystectomy procedures.

“The disruptive strategy leveraging Levita’s core proprietary magnetic expertise inside a robotic platform has huge potential in altering the way in which surgical procedure is carried out at a worldwide scale,” Sainz stated in a information launch. “I’m enthusiastic about Levita’s compelling imaginative and prescient and stay up for supporting the corporate because it begins its subsequent chapter.”

Sainz replaces Glen French as Levita’s board chair, a task he held for practically a decade. The corporate stated French moved to an advisory function for the board.

Levita stated its Sequence C funding spherical was led by a “healthtech funding group managed” by Evan Norton however didn’t title the group. Norton identifies himself on LinkedIn as a managing associate of healthcare development fairness and enterprise capital funding agency Ballast Capital, and public information present an entity referred to as Ballast Capital Levita LLC was integrated earlier this yr.

MedTex Ventures, Invermaster and Carao Ventures additionally participated within the funding spherical.

Dr. Alberto Rodriguez-Navarro is the CEO and founding father of Levita Magnetics. | Photograph courtesy of Levita

“We’re thrilled to have the help of this premier group of forward-thinking traders as we take the corporate to the subsequent stage with our distinctive strategy to surgical robotics,” Levita Magnetics founder and CEO Dr. Alberto Rodriguez-Navarro stated in a information launch. “At Levita, we consider that everybody deserves robotics, and our robotic platform is poised to resolve the large drawback of restricted entry worldwide to robotic surgical procedure.”