On November 16, at the global remote command center for surgical robots of MicroPort Robotics Group in Zhangjiang, Shanghai, French surgical expert Dr. Youness Ahallal successfully performed a remote radical prostatectomy surgery on a patient in Casablanca, Morocco, 12,000 kilometers away using the domestically produced Tsinghua Unigroup robot in Shanghai. The entire surgery lasted less than two hours, completed entirely remotely, with a delay of just over 100 milliseconds.

Currently, surgical robots can perform almost all surgeries that can be done with laparoscopy, covering almost all surgical fields, including general surgery, cardiac surgery, urology, gynecology, otolaryngology, plastic surgery, neurosurgery, and orthopedics.

According to clinical applications, surgical robot systems can be broadly classified into 5 categories: laparoscopic robots, orthopedic robots, natural orifice robots, vascular robots, and percutaneous robots.

According to the Economic and Financial Intelligence APP, laparoscopic surgery robots are the most advanced surgical technology internationally, as well as the largest market in scale and the most commercially mature type of surgical robot system.

Based on the analysis report by Markets & Markets, the global surgical robot market is estimated to be around $11.1 billion in 2024, and it is expected that by 2029, the global surgical robot market size will reach $23.7 billion, with a compound annual growth rate of 16.5%.

Only the two specific areas of laparoscopy and orthopedics occupy about 80% of the surgical robot market, with laparoscopy alone accounting for over 60%.

At the same time, according to Qianji Investment Bank's analysis report, the market share of endoscopic robots in the Chinese surgical robot market is as high as 74.9%, followed by orthopedic robots at 10%, and percutaneous puncture robots at 4.9%.

After more than 20 years of development, 'da Vinci' has supported the trillion-dollar market value of intuitive surgery, while also validating the sufficient imagination space in the domestic and foreign markets; domestic endoscopic surgical robot companies such as Auris, Weijing Medical Robotics, Microport Robotics, Jinfeng Medical, Thelsen, Ruilong Nuo Fu, Weigao Surgical, etc., are accelerating their pace and seizing the market.

Currently, the business model of China's surgical robot industry mainly drives the sales of surgical consumables and services through the installation of surgical robot equipment at the hospital end. In the future, with the strong support of policies such as China's aging trend, medical insurance policies, and industry development support, the overall industry has broad development prospects.

Related Hong Kong stocks for surgical robot concept:

Microport Robotics-B (02252): The company is expected to achieve a significant year-on-year growth of about 103% to 108% in revenue for the six months ended June 30, 2024 compared to the six months ended June 30, 2023. The company's Tuomai product obtained NMPA approval for listing on January 27, 2022 (used in urologic surgery), becoming China's first and only domestically developed and listed four-armed endoscopic surgical robot. In October 2023, Tuomai obtained approval for multiple departments including urology, general surgery, gynecology, and thoracic surgery. By 2023, Tuomai had completed the installation and sales of multiple products, with successful bids in over 15 domestic hospitals, leading the sales volume of domestic brand endoscopic surgical robots; the company's Honghu product obtained NMPA approval for listing in TKA surgery and became the first domestically approved orthopedic surgery robot combining hip and knee surgery with self-developed mechanical arms. It obtained FDA's 510(K) certification in July 2022 and CE certification in Asia, North America, South America, Europe, and Oceania in December 2022, marking a key milestone in the company's global strategy. Honghu has now secured multiple bids/installations domestically and internationally, with cumulative orders delivered exceeding 20 units, and has completed over 800 cases of robot-assisted clinical surgeries in more than 40 hospitals in 16 provinces nationwide in the fields of orthopedics, joint surgery, and sports medicine.

AK Medical (01789): The joint surgery robot system was recently approved for listing.

Weigao Group (01066): In October 2021, Weigao's 'Miaoshou' endoscopic surgical robot was approved for listing by the National Medical Products Administration, making it the first domestically produced endoscopic surgical robot to be approved for listing in China.

Fosun Pharma (02196): Fosun Pharma has entered this field through its subsidiary, Intuitive Fosun Medical Device Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. (referred to as 'Intuitive Fosun'). Recently, the 'Intuitive Fosun Headquarters Industrial Base Inauguration Ceremony' was held in Shanghai. It is reported that the total investment in this base project is approximately 0.7 billion yuan, making it the largest integrated research, production, and training base for Intuitive Medical in the Asia-Pacific region. In the initial stage of the new headquarters base operation, the focus will be on the production of some components for the da Vinci surgical robot and Ion systems.