A director at TransEnterix Inc. sold $22.72 million worth of shares in the medical device company in this past week, according to a Form 4 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday.

William Starling, co-founder of TransEnterix, sold 3.6 million shares on behalf of Synergy Life Sciences Partners. The shares sold at an average weighted share price of $6.28.

Following the transactions, Synergy holds 8.17 million shares worth approximately $50 million. The transactions were made on Sept. 25, 26, and 27.

TransEnterix shares opened were trading down 8 percent on Friday, down 49 cents to $5.55.

The transactions came days after TransEnterix’s announcement to purchase the assets of the Israeli private company MST Medical Surgery Technologies Ltd. on Monday. The purchase was paid for with $12.4 million cash and 3.15 million shares.

Synergy Life Sciences Partners is a venture capital firm focused on investing in early stage medical device companies. Starling is a managing director at the firm, as well as chief executive officer at the Research Triangle Park-based Synecor, a business generator for medical device innovation.

TransEnterix serves to improve clinical outcomes and patient care through the use of minimally invasive robotics in surgery. It was founded in 2006 in Morrisville, North Carolina.

The company reported a net loss of $34.25 million in the second quarter of 2018.