Titan Medical soars as speculators warm to robotic surgery play

Shares of junior Titan Medical (Titan Medical Stock Quote, Chart, News: TSXV:TMD) are way up today, and the company says it isn’t sure why.

At the request of IIROC, Titan issued the familiar release that it wasn’t aware of any material change that would cause its shares to spike. But management pointed to its release of November 11th that detailed the progress of its Single Port Orifice Robotic Technology (SPORT) surgical system, which it has begun testing.

Titan, which listed on the TSX Venture Exchange in January of last year, is a company investors on the TSX Venture Exchange are turning to get exposure to the robotic surgery market. According to a recent report from Researchmoz, the surgical robot device market was worth worth $3.2 billion in 2012, but is expected to reach reach $19.96 billion by 2019.

With no revenue to date and losses that total $6,962,023 in the first nine months of 2013, Titan is still a clearly speculative stab at the space. But the company has made some impressive inroads, including an exclusive agreement with Columbia University for its novel single port robotic surgery system, a technology it says is the world’s smallest, in terms of required diameter, to enter the body while enabling full manipulation capabilities and imaging feedback.

Titan says its development partner, Ximedica, is currently seeking FDA permission to market the SPORT surgical system and is looking to obtain a CE Mark from the European Union.

“We are continuing to meet out milestones and remain on track for commercialization in 2015,” said CEO John Hargrove in a recent press release.

At press time, shares of Titan Medical were up 47% to $0.88.