Fujifilm to enter pharmaceuticals industry

Japanese photography company Fujifilm has continued its moves into the pharmaceutical industry.

On Monday the company announced that it had purchased a 22 per cent stake in Tokyo biotech company Perseus Proteomics, making the company a majority shareholder. Fujifilm wishes to focus on cancer and diabetes treatments and diagnostic systems.

Declining sales of photographic film and conventional cameras have motivated the deal, with Fujifilm wanting to branch out into new businesses. It already formed an alliance with clinical testing support firm CLIC in September, and joined the technology exchange Cosmos Alliance in May 2005.

“By forming a cooperative strategy with Perseus, Fujifilm plans to market a diagnostic system that utilises diagnostic biomarkers for lifestyle-related diseases such as cancer and arteriosclerosis in 2008,” it said in a statement.

“Fujifilm will proceed with the development of new advanced medical materials combining Perseus’ technologies with its molecular imaging technology which enables visualisation of in vivo molecules using its proprietary materials.”

It claimed that Perseus is the only company in the world in possession of licences covering 48 nuclear hormone receptors, which may help in the treatment of diabetes.

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