This innovative medical imaging company recently obtained FDA approval for it's progressive imaging system and the industry is buzzing about their visual technology platform for surgeons. Viking Systems, Inc. (OTC:VKNG) is a profitable small cap company in the healthcare sector entering full commercialization. With upcoming news catalysts, there is strong reason to believe that shares can propel upward from these levels.  

Unlike most micro-cap stocks,Viking Systems does not have an overwhelming number of shares in the float and it's market cap stands at only $26M (or $0.49 pps). The company has great working relationships with Sony (co-marketers) and Boston Scientific. They recently got FDA approval of their Next Generation 3DHD visualization system for minimally invasive surgeries. Positive things are happening at VKNG and more catalysts are on the horizon in 2010.

Notably, they launched their product earlier this week at the American College of Surgeons Clinical Congress (ACS)  in Washington DC; a major medical conference that brought together roughly 9,000 domestic and international surgeons. With several other large medical conference exhibits and co-marketing plans with Sony, VKNG built brand awareness. At a splashy media event sponsored by Sony, they recently demonstrated the 3DHD capabilties of VKNG’s 3DHD Surgical vision system (which uses Sony’s 3D LCD panels) for key consumer and medical trade media.

Additionally, they have had multiple world-renowned doctors singing praises about their systems at large medical meetings, thereby adding even more credibility to their technology. VKNG recenly enlisted notable surgeon Dr. Gerald Andriole (Professor and Chief, Division of Urologic Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis) to be their medical advisor. The buzz is starting to build out there for VKNG and it's cutting edge product.

Jed Kennedy, Viking Systems President & CEO stated, "The overwhelming response to our Next Generation System was very gratifying. Surgeon after surgeon praised the product and quickly identified the potential benefits to their surgical procedures in using this system."

This morning, the company reported today that it has officially launched its Next Generation 3DHD Visualization System also announced today its first distribution partners for the new system.Surgioscopy, Cunningham Woodland, Inc. and American Surgical, Inc. to cover specific territories within the United States. Combined these distribution partners provide 35 sales representatives covering 31 states within the United States. The Company plans to launch even more distribution coverage agreements in the U.S. in the coming months.

Viking Systems announced that it has entered into a distribution agreement with Guangdong Medical Equipment Industrial Company covering the People's Republic of China with a sales force, through its affiliated partners, of approximately 500 sales representatives and 18 territory managers. Additionally, the Company today reported that it has also entered into distribution agreements for the Next Generation 3DHD system with distribution partners covering Italy, France, Korea, and Turkey. As part of the agreements, distributors are required to purchase 3DHD demonstration systems enabling them to present all features of the system in clinical evaluations.

Let us not forget that VKNG expects to receive their CE mark in Europe sometime in Q4 2010.

As CEO Jed Kennedy said, “Because Viking is ISO13485-certified, we will be able to self-certify the 3DHD for the European community. This keeps us on track to be in the US and European markets in the fourth quarter of 2010 as planned.” They are also working with Sony VKNG is poised to penetrate a $1-2 billion dollar market built around inferior 2D instrumentation and they’re the only company with stand alone-cost effective 3D surgical vision systems. The market will begin to shift towards 3D vision systems based on the significant benefits it offers surgeons in the operating room. Their 3D vision system restores natural depth perception, improves overall surgical efficiency, requires no additional certification or training for those surgeons certified to perform laparoscopic procedures, lower procedure times and costs. They have estimated the system will cost about $80-90K for the end-user and it will also have standard 2DHD, which is significantly cheaper than comparable robotic systems by more than $500K. Additionally, they plan to work on adding 3DHD support to surgical robots, which would increase the market potential by nearly $1B.

With an assumption of only 5% market conversion(very conservative), this could represent $100M in sales for VKNG. That is a very significant opportunity for this company and with Sony behind them to help co-market this product, VKNG is well-positioned for growth in the surgical vision market. VKNG might need to raise capital in order to fully capitalize on this opportunity, considering the big push in marketing and getting sales. Based on the buzz around their 3DHD and co-marketing via Sony, VKNG is set to be a pivotal player in the surgical vision market with their pioneering technology.

Jed Kennedy said, "We are extraordinarily pleased with the quality of the distributors we have partnered with in this first phase of our distribution strategy and with the distributors' significant financial commitments to purchase demonstration equipment in order to assure success in their markets." Kennedy went on to say, "Clinical demonstrations in the OR are a key step in the sales process of surgical video systems and our distributor network will be well equipped to successfully demonstrate Viking's 3DHD Surgical Vision System resulting in system sales."

Viking currently has commitments from distributors to purchase 20 Next Generation 3DHD demonstration systems. The company plans to begin shipping the initial demonstration systems during the fourth quarter of 2010. These demonstration systems, which are critical to the sales process and are not intended for resale, are priced at a substantial discount to the distributors' agreed upon regular purchase price for resalable systems.

Viking's most recent corporate presentation: http://bit.ly/cfkLoH

Last November we Covered the Company in detail: http://biomedreports.com/articles/most-popular/18023-undervalued-and-breaking-new-ground-otcvkng.html

Disclosure: Long VKNG

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