Orthocell Ltd (ASX: OCC) shares are catching the eye again on Friday.
In morning trade, the ASX All Ords stock is up 7% to $1.51.
Why is this ASX All Ords stock jumping today?
Investors have been buying the regenerative medicine company's shares following the release of an announcement relating to its flagship Remplir product.
Remplir is a collagen wrap used in nerve repair surgery to assist surgeons to improve outcomes in the repair and regeneration of damaged nerves.
It was recently given the thumbs up by the US Food & Drug Administration, paving the way for the company to start generating revenue in the country.
Orthocell is targeting a large global addressable nerve repair market estimated to be worth in excess of US$3.5 billion.
What is today's news?
According to the release, the company has added a further eight distributors for Remplir, taking the total number of US distributors signed to 12.
Management notes that the signing of distributors has progressed well ahead of expectations with the company previously only targeting 10 distributors in place by 30 June. It feels that the rapid signing of these new distributors is a testament to the quality of Remplir and the distributors' belief in being able to generate strong sales for the product in the US.
Following these new appointments, the ASX All Ords stock's distributor group collectively covers 21 US states. And with these relationships non-exclusive, the company intends to continue signing additional distributors to expand access to the US market.
'Confident'
Commenting on the news, Orthocell's CEO and managing director, Paul Anderson, said:
It's very pleasing to see such rapid progress on the expansion of our US distributor network so soon after receiving US FDA clearance in April. We're well ahead of the targets we had set ourselves and expect that to translate to first US Remplir sales this quarter.
Our US team has been working tirelessly leading up to the product launch and we're confident we have the right strategy to drive market penetration of the US. For us, that means a combination of experienced internal employees complemented by a portfolio of distributors who have active sales channels to reach and engage our customers. We expect to grow our portfolio of distributors too.
Following today's strong gain, this ASX All Ords stock is now up almost 300% since this time last year.
