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Robot surgery: Globus shares dip on FDA delay

Still "confident" ExcelsiusGPS will be approved

Shares of Globus Medical, the Audubon, Montgomery County-based spinal-treatment developer, fell as much as 9 percent in early trading Thursday after the company said its ExcelsiusGPS robotic-surgery platform would not gain the next level of Food and Drug Administration approval by June, as previously projected.

By midafternoon Globus shares had regained most of the loss and had topped $30. On May 4, Globus closed at $32.15, its highest price since going public (at $12) in 2012. The company employs 1,400. The stock closed at $30.33

"The FDA has not expressed any concern" over the technology "and is confident" it can be approved, Kyle Rose, an analyst at investment bank Canaccord Genuity Group, wrote in a report to clients, citing Globus management.

The delay followed FDA requests for "additional testing." Rose expects FDA seeks more data after testing systems from rival robotics developers Mazor and Zimmer Biomet.