LANGHORNE, Pa., June 2, 2009 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Power Medical Interventions(r), Inc. (OTCBB:PMII), a leader in developing and commercializing Intelligent Surgical Instruments(tm), announced today that Intuitive Surgical, Inc. has elected to exercise its right to receive an irrevocable license to certain Power Medical Intervention (PMI) intellectual property in exchange for an accelerated aggregate milestone payment of $5 million. The payment to PMI was made in connection with the License and Development Agreement signed with Intuitive in September 2008. As provided under terms of the agreement, Intuitive has the right to receive an irrevocable license by accelerating payment of remaining milestones. With this latest payment, PMI has received a total of $20 million under its agreement with Intuitive.
Through the companies' License and Development Agreement, PMI and Intuitive are jointly developing a novel surgical stapling device that will attach to Intuitive's da Vinci(r) Surgical System and will utilize PMI's patented surgical stapling technology. Once developed, this attachment will enable a physician utilizing the da Vinci Surgical System to cut and staple tissue in a broad array of surgical applications. The companies have also previously entered into a reload supply agreement whereby PMI will be the manufacturer and exclusive supplier of certain staple reload cartridges for the newly developed device.
"Intuitive Surgical's decision to exercise its right to secure an irrevocable license under our License and Development Agreement provides PMI with $5 million in non-dilutive financing while also offering additional critical validation of our technology from a leading developer of innovative surgical equipment," stated Michael Whitman, president and chief executive officer of PMI. "While we are pleased that this funding will continue to assist in our efforts to strengthen our financial position, we are equally excited about our continuing collaboration with Intuitive Surgical. It is estimated that surgical staplers are used in over 3.5 million procedures annually. The potential to expand into a broad array of these surgical procedures will exist upon completion of our joint development initiative. This should lead to significant benefits for surgeons in a variety of new procedures in colon and rectal, thoracic, gynecologic, and bariatric surgery."
About Power Medical Interventions, Inc.
Power Medical Interventions is the world's only provider of computer-assisted, power-actuated surgical cutting and stapling products. PMI's state-of-the-art wireless Intelligent Surgical Instruments(tm) are revolutionizing and expanding minimally invasive surgery applications and enabling novel surgical procedures to benefit surgeons, patients, hospitals and healthcare networks. To learn more about Power Medical Interventions, Inc. and its products, please visit www.pmi2.com.
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