Switzerland-based Distalmotion hopes to make its Dexter robotic surgery the standard of care in procedures that entail precise dissection and suturing and market itself as a more cost-effective alternative to Intuitive Surgical’s da Vinci system.

Two separate Philadelphia juries have ruled against Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Ethicon in cases brought by women who say they were injured by the company’s pelvic mesh products, awarding damages totaling $200m.

The company’s Ethicon business unit was cleared on allegations a pelvic mesh product had injured a Texas woman, while a jury in a separate trial issued a $247m award to patients claiming injury from the DePuy Orthopaedics Pinnacle hip.

A case before the Supreme Court this term will bring the five-year-old PTAB patent examination system into question, while two cases involving are being appealed for review. Of the pending cases, one involves a circuit split on what type of damages consumers must suffer to be allowed to sue medtech companies, while the other looks at the right of states to use outside counsel in suits against manufacturers.