Vicarious Surgical Inc.

Good afternoon, and welcome to Vicari Surgical's first quarter 2022 earnings conference call. My name is Amber, and I will be your moderator for today's call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. We will be facilitating a question and answer session towards the end of today's call. As a reminder, this call is being recorded for replay purposes. I would now like to turn the conference over to Marissa Beisch with Gil Martin Group for a few introductory remarks.

Thank you all for participating in today's call. Earlier today, Vicarious Surgical released preliminary unaudited financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2022. A copy of the press release is available on the company's website. Before we begin, I'd like to remind you that management will make statements during this call that include forward-looking statements within the meaning of federal securities laws, which are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any statements contained in this call that relate to expectations or predictions of future events, results, or performance are forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, those relating to our operating trends and future financial performance, expense management, market opportunity, and commercialization are based upon our current estimates and various assumptions. These statements involve material risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results or events to materially differ from those anticipated or implied by these forward-looking statements. Accordingly, you should not place undue reliance on these statements. For a list of descriptions of the risks and uncertainties associated with our business, please refer to the risk factors section of our quarterly report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 31, 2022. This conference call contains time-sensitive information and is accurate only as of the live broadcast today, May 9, 2022. Vicarious Surgical disclaims any intention or obligation, except as required by law, to update or revise any financial projections or forward-looking statements, whether because of new information, future events, or otherwise. And with that, I will turn the call over to Adam Sachs, Chief Executive Officer.

Thank you, Marissa. Good afternoon, and thank you all for joining our first quarter 2022 earnings call. I'm excited about the progress and achievements we have made early in the year, which I will review shortly before discussing our operational results. Joining me is Bill Kelly, Vicarious Surgical's chief financial officer. I'd like to start by reminding you of our mission and vision. At Vicarious Surgical, we are committed to leveraging next generation robotics technology to improve the standard of care for patients across a variety of surgical procedures while minimizing associated costs to the healthcare system. Despite advancements to minimally invasive surgery over the last 40 years, it is estimated that more than 50% of the 39 million annual procedures addressable by surgical robots are currently performed using open surgical techniques. Trauma from large incisions associated with these techniques results in long hospitalization and recovery times, high long-term cost of care, and significant pain and suffering. While current minimally invasive techniques seek to address the substantial unmet need, these techniques fall short. Laparoscopic instruments are difficult to manipulate, have limited degrees of freedom, limited reach, and reduced depth of perception and visibility, requiring significant coordination among the surgical team to perform the procedure. Currently marketed robotic systems offer some advantages as compared to laparoscopic surgery, but require extensive training, have high associated costs, and see limited adoption. At Vicarious Surgical, we intend to deliver the next generation of robotic-assisted surgery to solve the shortcomings of open surgery and current laparoscopic and robotically assisted minimally invasive surgery. The Vicarius system combines advanced miniaturized robotics and software to build an intelligent single incision surgical robot that virtually transports surgeons inside the patient to perform minimally invasive surgical procedures. Our proprietary decoupled actuators enable human equivalent motion with a full nine degrees of freedom per robotic arm, providing an experience that is more natural and more akin to the surgeon's own upper body movements. In surgical procedures conducted on cadavers, the system allows surgeons to enter the abdomen from nearly any angle and work in nearly any direction, without the need to manually reposition the system. A stereoscopic camera that rotates in three degrees of freedom provides the surgeon with imaging of nearly every surface in the abdomen, The vicarious system contains 28 sensors per instrument arm, designed to enable real-time feedback to the surgeon on force, motion, and other key data intended to enhance the surgical procedures and patient outcomes. With its significant technical advantages, our system's value proposition to hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers is clear. The vicarious system is designed to provide excellent surgical dexterity with flexible setups, to enable indicated procedures to be performed faster and more effectively with less injury and risk to the patient, significantly reducing overall healthcare costs. Unlike legacy robotic systems, our system is also much smaller, easily moving to any operating room throughout a medical facility. Further, we intend for our product to be much more efficient to learn, set up, and use during a procedure. Hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers would not be required to dedicate permanent space, reducing expenses related to operating room turnover. Finally, our system's efficient size and design will allow a cost-effective price point. Considering these advantages, we remain incredibly excited about the unique opportunity for our system to benefit patients, surgeons, hospitals, and payers. Shifting to our recent progress. First, we are pleased to have completed the qualification of our clean room for the manufacturing of the vicarious system. The clean room substantially augments our existing capabilities by providing an environmentally controlled and easily expandable space for precision assembly. Through rigorous testing, the qualification process ensures that our space meets stringent efficiency and quality criteria. an essential step as we prepare for manufacturing our system. Secondly, we are excited to share that we have concluded cadaveric testing of our Beta-1 units and have begun testing some features of our Beta-2 system with surgeons. We have partnered closely with a select group of well-respected surgeons to integrate their thoughts and feedback as we refine the nuances of our technology, and we have high expectations in our final product. By engaging thought leaders core to the trajectory of surgical robotics, we know we will deliver a more thoughtful and comprehensive product prepared for efficient surgeon adoption. Over the past month, we have rigorously tested the first iteration of our Beta 2 Surgeon Console in order to help answer questions about the final Beta 2, which we intend to lock for production shortly. Feedback on ergonomic changes introduced between Beta 1 and Beta 2 has been well-received. with surgeons additionally excited for the improved visualization Beta 2 provides, as well as the enhanced sensing and motion capabilities, which enable the surgeon to move freely within the abdominal cavity, further expanding their access and ability to operate. On the note of surgeon partnerships, we are pleased to announce we have recently formed a Surgeon Luminary Group. This is a group of 20 of the most talented, experienced, and innovative surgeons providing critical expertise and thought leadership to guide all clinical aspects of our technology. These surgeons include Dr. Igor Belyansky, who is credited with being the first to describe robotic ETEF access technique for repair of ventral hernias and who is globally recognized as an expert in robotic abdominal wall reconstruction. Dr. Belyansky is excited to work with our company because of our technology's potential to change the paradigm across surgery. as well as the ability of our company to rapidly iterate and incorporate surgeon feedback into our product offering. It is truly an honor to have this incredible group of surgeons working alongside us to create the future of surgery. Leveraging the experience from Beta-1 and our many hospital and surgeon partnerships, as well as the expertise of our newly formed surgeon luminary group, we are now exploring opportunities for beta-2 cadaveric testing in a hospital setting as we finalize our product design. We look forward to continuing to update you on this progress in the coming months. Shifting to our early awareness and training efforts, we strongly believe that simulation outside of the operating room will play an increasing role in surgeon and staff training for surgical robotics. We have a talented team of software engineers who have developed a simulation platform. And we are pleased to announce that we have begun allowing surgeons to use our robotic simulator for clinical and technical testing. Our simulator allows surgeons to virtually test Beta 2 features in realistic scenarios, even from remote locations and without physical access to our system. This simulation program allows us to get surgeon feedback more quickly from more surgeons and with broader reach, ultimately ensuring that our launch meets the needs of surgeons and hospitals. We look forward to making our simulation for robotic hernia repair and additional use cases available to more surgeons across a broader set of hospitals later this year. We continue to identify and engage with major hospitals for product feedback as we finalize our system. To date, hospital engagement has reflected strong enthusiasm for our system. We are optimistic that our high engagement strategy will set the stage for broader reach as we plan our initial launch by ensuring that we are building exactly what surgeons and hospitals need. As part of our partnership efforts, we are working toward executing a center of excellence agreement with the goal of generating valuable insights on the development, integration, and finalization of the vicarious system. We are also confident that the center will help surgeons better understand and experience our system. We remain focused on leveraging our differentiated technologies and hand sensing to build out significant data and artificial intelligence capabilities. We see a unique opportunity for Vicarious Surgical to employ data and AI to assist in all aspects of the procedure from preoperative planning through postoperative care. Our unique hammer technology not only provides for additional physical space for multispectral light sources and filters, but also provides the platform for 3D mapping, enabling advanced intelligence to support the surgeon's decisions during the procedure and postoperatively. Before I turn the call over to Bill to review our first quarter financials, let me touch on our broader clinical and regulatory strategy. As a reminder, we are targeting the ventral hernia indication for our first clinical application. with the intent to file a de novo classification request by late 2024, following which we intend to file for three additional indications, inguinal hernia, cholecystectomy, and hysterectomy. With that, we hope that by maintaining a close cadence of submissions, we will be able to offer customers a broad set of use cases relatively early in our commercial launch. In summary, we are making important steps toward realizing the full potential of minimally invasive robotic surgery. Our team is thoughtful and uncompromising in our approach toward development, with an emphasis on ergonomic appeal and technological excellence. We are actively building meaningful hospital and surgeon relationships to capitalize on this unique opportunity, and we are as confident as ever in the road ahead. Thank you. And I will now turn the call over to Bill Kelly, our Chief Financial Officer, for a discussion of our first quarter financial results.