TransEnterix is changing its name and slightly altering its mission in surgical robotics. The Research Triangle Park, NC-based company will be named Asensus Surgical and will start trading under the new ticker symbol, NYSE American: ASXC starting March 5.

The company said the name change reflects the company's broader vision of shaping the future of surgery by integrating computer vision and machine learning with surgical robotics. It also reflects the company’s mission of opening up a new category of procedures, Performance-Guided Surgery.

“As we work to create the future of surgery, we need to enable surgeons to take the best surgical practices and techniques from everywhere and enable them to be leveraged anywhere; this is what digital technology has enabled us to do,” said Anthony Fernando, President and CEO of Asensus. “As the company evolves from a robotics company to a digital surgery company, the rebrand better reflects our vision and we know that Asensus has the technology, the team, and the opportunity to create a new paradigm in best surgical practices and techniques we call performance-guided surgery.”

The firm has the Senhance Surgical System, which is a digital laparoscopic platform that goes beyond the typical surgical robotic systems, providing surgical assurance through haptic feedback, eye-tracking camera control, and 3D visualization, and is the first platform to offer 3 mm instruments.

Senhance received FDA clearance in 2017.

There are massive shifts that are expected to occur in the surgical robotics market so a change in name and a tighter focus for the company makes sense.

The market is poised to see two new entrants – Medtronic and Johnson & Johnson. The two companies have both unveiled surgical robotics platforms. Dublin-based Medtronic revealed its surgical robotics platform in September of 2019.

New Brunswick, NJ-based Johnson & Johnson revealed its platform in November of 2020. The company had to delay the reveal from its initial date of May 13th, 2020 because of the pandemic. 

Both devices, which have not yet received a nod from FDA, would compete against Intuitive Surgical’s da Vinci System, which holds the top position in the surgical robotics market.