TransEnterix Lands Surgical Device Executive to Serve as Chief Technology Officer

Research Triangle Park, NC, January 24, 2011 --(PR.com)-- Richard M. Mueller has been named chief technology officer at TransEnterix.

A research and development expert in the field of minimally invasive surgical devices, Mueller most recently served as vice president of product development at NuVasive Inc., a publicly traded spinal device company that has experienced tremendous growth fueled by rapid product innovation.

During his five years at NuVasive, Mueller managed the company’s exponential product expansion, growing its line from 10 products to more than 60 products and building a portfolio to address the spine surgery market’s increasingly lateral approach to treatment. The company grew its annual revenues from $30 million to nearly $500 million under Mueller’s leadership of product development.

"Mueller’s philosophy of relying on customer input to help drive product development reflects that found at TransEnterix, which works closely with leading surgeons to develop pioneering technologies that advance minimally invasive surgery," said Todd M. Pope, President and CEO of TransEnterix.

“With more than 100 medical device product launches under his belt, Rich knows how to effectively engage surgeons and advance innovative solutions that make their work easier and result in better patient care,” Pope said. “Given our vision of rapid innovation based on surgeon feedback, Rich is uniquely qualified to build upon the successful launch of our SPIDER® Surgical System.”

Before he joined NuVasive, Mueller was director of research and product development at Theken Spine, a start up that was later acquired by Integra Life Sciences. Previously, he oversaw research and development efforts at Volk Optical Inc., and served as both project manager and department manager at Proctor & Gamble, where he was responsible for segments of global over-the-counter product manufacturing.

The TransEnterix Spider Surgical System allows surgeons to perform operations through a single small incision. The system is not just “another” belly-button surgical platform – rather, it resolves the problems surgeons encountered when they used less sophisticated, first-generation single incision platforms. It offers two critically important differentiating features:

Triangulation. Spider opens up and expands within the abdomen, much like how an umbrella works. This expansion allows surgeons to properly approach the surgical site from different angles.

Flexible instruments. Two of Spider's four functioning channels are flexible and can be manipulated 360 degrees, giving surgeons a freedom of movement they don't have with traditional, rigid laparoscopic surgical tools.

Spider’s expansion capability and flexible instruments are proprietary to TransEnterix and are not available in any other surgical system on the market.

In less than three years, TransEnterix has grown from an incubated start up with no dedicated staff to a cutting-edge medical device company that has raised $60 million in venture capital funding and successfully started greenfield manufacturing to support the Spider System’s commercialization in the United States and European Union.

The Spider system has been featured on the Emmy-award-winning national TV talk show, “The Doctors,” and profiled in Esquire magazine by America’s favorite surgeon, Dr. Oz. Surgeons throughout the world are using it to successfully treat obesity, colon cancer and hernias, and to remove kidneys and gallbladders.

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Note To Media: B-roll videotape, B-roll animation and high-resolution photos of Spider are available.