Life Science Intelligence

Under the direction of CEO Nikki Palfrey and Co-Founder and COO Nico Fenu, PhD, Nami Surgical is developing a meaningful new capability in robotic-assisted surgery: integrated ultrasonic advanced energy with wristed articulation. Built on deep expertise in ultrasonics and designed specifically for robotic integration, the company is working to address a functional gap that has persisted as surgical robotics has scaled, creating a platform intended to bring the speed, precision, and safety advantages of ultrasonic energy into a new generation of procedures. Origin Story Nami Surgical was founded in December 2021 by Dr. Nico Fenu and Dr. Rebecca Cleary, both alumni of the University of Glasgow’s Centre for Medical and Industrial Ultrasonics, the world’s largest academic ultrasonic engineering unit. The company emerged directly from Fenu’s PhD research, as well as the founders’ work within the Ultrasurge: Surgery Enabled by Ultrasonics program, giving Nami a foundation rooted in speciali...

It has been a quieter stretch across medtech headlines, with recent editions focused heavily on M&A and portfolio reshuffling. This week, we are shifting attention to a segment that continues to attract outsized investor interest relative to its stage of development: the BCI market. As Q1 2026 wrapped, one signal stood out clearly in recent funding data. Capital is increasingly flowing toward companies developing brain-computer interface platforms. The scale of recent financings demonstrates that trend. Merge Labs launched out of stealth with a $252 million Seed round in January. Science Corp. followed with a $230 million Series C in March. That same month, Stairmed raised $73 million with backing from Tencent and Alibaba, while Gestala secured $21.6 million. These rounds build on earlier financings, including $200 million for Synchron and $650 million for Neuralink. This level of investment is notable given that no BCI device has yet reached commercial approval in the United State...

Johnson & Johnson’s agreement to acquire Atraverse Medical fits a pattern that has become increasingly familiar across medtech M&A . Strategic buyers are continuing to target commercial-stage companies operating in expanding procedural markets where workflow advantages and ecosystem positioning matter just as much as the core technology itself. This deal also highlights something else: the founders behind FARAPULSE have once again identified a procedural bottleneck inside the same operating room and built a company around solving it. Steven Mickelsen, John Slump, Eric Sauter, and their broader team previously helped reshape pulsed-field ablation before Boston Scientific acquired FARAPULSE in 2021. Now, they have built a left-heart access platform that Johnson & Johnson believes strengthens Biosense Webster’s position in EP. The timing is important. So is the strategic fit.  J&J’s Structural Advantage in EP Johnson & Johnson’s electrophysiology (EP) business i...

18 months ago, weight-loss peptides looked like they might fundamentally reshape healthcare demand patterns overnight. Investors treated semaglutide and tirzepatide as existential threats to multiple device categories, from cardiovascular technologies to orthopedics, diabetes management, and surgical interventions. Today, the latest data suggests the obesity treatment market is evolving in a more complicated way. The original disruption thesis was directionally understandable. Prescription growth has been extraordinary. But broad assumptions about collapsing device demand have not held up, at least not yet. The Numbers Behind the Shift Use of GLP-1 therapies among overweight or obese adults surged 587% between 2019 and 2024. As of 2025, an estimated 13% of U.S. adults are using these therapies specifically for weight loss, compared with roughly 6% in early 2024. That kind of adoption curve is difficult to ignore. But has it materially changed obesity prevalence? Yes, though not dramat...