Titan Medical Inc (TMDIF)

[Bristol19]

Question for the big company reps out there:
How typical is it that out of the blue comes a piece of advanced technology, in a new market sector, without an inkling of all the research, planning, testing, etc. that goes into it?

I mean I can believe a Philips can unveil a new scanner technology, but the scientific R/D background on it would be well known (example, SQUID imaging, the physics have been around for decades). An Ethicon isn't just going to announce one day that a new artificial heart is in their sales catalog. What I'm getting at is yes, Google and JnJ made an announcement that they will work together and something is forthcoming in a couple years, but that's not a long time to put out a market-ready competitor to a daVinci. There are robotic technologies out there, but usually they are visible through academic R&D, popular technology press, company PR bites and such.

To me it just sounds crazy that all of a sudden Google's going to design some hipster-app software and JnJ's just going to have this "platform" pop out of nowhere --- to do surgery and pass FDA/CE approvals for christ'sakes! We're not talking about a new blood pressure monitor here.

What has been going on under wraps at JnJ for years to get to this point? My guess is nothing. They need to buy a mature platform. Most of their companies are "monitors" and implants, not to mention Q-tips.
Anybody out there work for JnJ?