Shares of Orthocell Ltd (ASX: OCC) have enjoyed an incredible run over the last fortnight in which time they have almost doubled in price. Orthocell is a biomedical group based at Murdoch University, Western Australia, that provides innovative approaches to the regeneration of tendon, cartilage and soft tissue injuries.
The stock is up a remarkable 92% over the last two weeks (and up 12.3% today) at 73 cents, giving the company a market capitalisation just over $40 million.
It appears that the stock's sudden surge has come as a result of an announcement made early last week. Orthocell said that a publication that appeared in a popular medical journal, The Journal of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine, provided peer reviewed support for a similar approach to repairing cartilage as that offered by Orthocell itself.
This news obviously has investors excited about Orthocell's Ortho-ACI cartilage repair product and the significant role it could play in the coming years. Orthocell said that "more than 500,000 cartilage surgeries are undertaken in the US each year and the use of growth factors to prevent or augment a portion of these surgeries represents an attractive market opportunity for Orthocell."
Indeed, there is a huge potential market that Orthocell could address, while ageing populations across many of the world's civilised nations could also help to drive demand in the decades to come. While Orthocell has risen 92% over the last fortnight, fellow tissue repair group Tissue Therapies Limited (ASX: TIS) has also gained 88% to trade at 6.6 cents up 8.2% for the day so far.
