PROCEPT BioRobotics Corporation, a Silicon Valley surgical robotics company developing intelligent solutions to transform the field of urology, has announced the appointment of Reza Zadno, PhD, as its new president and chief executive officer.
With more than three decades of leadership experience in the medical device industry, Zadno brings expertise in leading and scaling commercial operations. He is also an accomplished inventor and medical device company founder with a proven track record of building significant shareholder value.
Zadno joins PROCEPT BioRobotics as it seeks to rapidly expand the global adoption of Aquablation® therapy, performed by the AquaBeam® Robotic System, the first FDA-granted surgical robot for the autonomous removal of prostate tissue in males suffering from benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH). Aquablation has been awarded both the New Technology Add-on Payment and Transitional Pass-Through Payment from CMS in the United States by demonstrating a substantial clinical improvement compared to other available surgical approaches to BPH.
“We are exceptionally pleased to appoint Reza to CEO at such a pivotal growth time for PROCEPT BioRobotics. With his remarkable business and technical acumen, we believe he is uniquely qualified to lead the company through rapid expansion and build a market leader in the BPH therapy space,” said Rodney Perkins, MD, co-founder and chairman of the board. “PROCEPT’s technology of rapid, precise image-guided tissue removal represents the next generation of surgical robotics, and Reza can lead us into this new era of surgery.”
“Technology has advanced significantly since the development of the earliest robotic platforms used in medicine,” said Frederic Moll, MD, co-founder of Intuitive Surgical and Auris Health Inc. and member of PROCEPT BioRobotics’ board. “PROCEPT BioRobotics is a unique company in the robotics space that has the ability to augment surgical technique utilizing next generation robotic technology.”
Zadno came to PROCEPT BioRobotics after serving as president and CEO of Avedro Inc. (NASDAQ: AVDR), an ophthalmology company that developed a proprietary Corneal Remodeling Platform Technology. While there, he led the company through sizeable fundraising and rapid commercialization, achieving greater than 95 percent coverage from commercial payers. Zadno took the company public in February 2019 and completed an acquisition by Glaukos (NYSE: GKOS) in November 2019.
Prior to his position at Avedro, Zadno spent five years as a venture partner at firms including Interwest Partners and Novartis Fund. Additionally, he was the founder, president and CEO of Visiogen, which was acquired by Abbott Medical Optics (now Johnson & Johnson Vision). Reza earlier co-founded PercuSurge, a maker of distal protection devices used in treating occluded carotid arteries and saphenous vein grafts, which was acquired by Medtronic.
“Surgical robotics is certainly one of the most exciting fields in healthcare, and I am a true believer in PROCEPT BioRobotics’ technology and the global market opportunity that stands before us,” said Zadno. “For the first time, PROCEPT has brought a technology to the market where the robot performs the surgical removal of prostatic tissue. This foundation allows us to now advance surgery even further by incorporating artificial intelligence.”