Vicarious Surgical’s board of directors is recommending shareholders of the robot developer approve a plan to dissolve the company and liquidate its assets in an insolvency procedure.
In a June 22 notice, the board said Vicarious has had recurring operating losses and negative cash flows since its inception and is expected “to continue to generate operating losses and consume significant cash resources for the foreseeable future.”
The company planned to hold a special meeting of stockholders on July 21 for stockholders to vote on the proposal, according to a securities filing. Shareholders can also submit their vote through the internet or by mail.
Vicarious Surgical did not respond to MedTech Dive’s request for comment by publication time.
The proposal to wind down Vicarious, which has been developing a single-port robotic system for abdominal procedures, comes as competition heats up in the U.S. soft tissue surgery market, with companies including Medtronic, CMR Surgical, Distalmotion and Moon Surgical launching robotic platforms to challenge Intuitive’s market-leading da Vinci system.
CEO Stephen From, who joined Vicarious last year, made operational changes and cut costs in an attempt to reach technology milestones for its robot. A clinical trial to evaluate the system was postponed last year. Earlier this year, the company’s shares were delisted from the New York Stock Exchange. Vicarious had hoped to achieve a design freeze for the robot by the end of this year.
Vicarious CFO Sarah Romano plans to step down from her position on July 22 to join SS Innovations International, another robot developer.
Vicarious said it had cash and equivalents of nearly $3.7 million as of March 31. “We do not expect our cash and cash equivalents to be sufficient to continue as a going concern for any significant period of time,” the filing stated.
The company added that it was exploring strategic alternatives, including partners and financing opportunities, but said it was unlikely those efforts would be successful in the next few weeks.
“To date, we have been unable to secure additional equity, debt or other financing and have been unsuccessful in our efforts to attract a buyer for our business,” it said.
