Japanese office equipment and camera maker Canon Inc plans to branch out into biotechnology by commercialising DNA chips for use in medical diagnosis, aiming to build a new pillar for future growth. The move comes on the heels of plans by Canon, the world's largest office machine maker, to enter the flat-television market by launching advanced flat panel displays as part of efforts to widen its business portfolio.
Canon will seek approval at its shareholders meeting on Wednesday to include "production and sales of pharmaceutical products" in its operational objectives, getting ready for the commercialisation of biotechnology products, a spokesman said.
"We have conducted biotechnology research in the past several years using our core technology stored up from office equipment development, and we've made some progress," the spokesman said.
"Like SED TVs, which we hope will become a new pillar to boost our earnings growth, biotechnology could be another pillar in the future," he said, referring to televisions that use surface conduction electron emitter display (SED) panels.
SED panels are seen as promising next-generation displays as they are thinner than existing flat panels and use less energy.
However, Canon has not yet decided on any specific plan on when and how to commercialise biotechnology products, he said.
As part of its biotechnology research, Canon is developing systems for the mass production of DNA chips that use the bubble jet technology employed in its printers and are aimed at helping with the diagnosis of cancer and infectious diseases.
The new method would allow DNA chips for diagnosing cancer and diabetes to be mass produced more cheaply than with existing technology.
The Nikkei Business magazine reported this year that Canon planned to spend up to 10 billion yen ($93.2 million) on mass production of DNA chips possibly in 2005 and that it wanted to post 100 billion yen of biotechnology-related sales in 2010.
However, the Canon spokesman reiterated that the company had not mapped out any investment plans or financial goals.
Existing DNA chips are generally expensive and their uses largely limited to biological and chemical basic research. However, demand is likely to grow as medical institutions and drug makers seek to identify genes associated with certain diseases and funnel more resources to develop genome-based drugs.
The DNA chip market, led by US firm Affymetrix Inc, is expected to double to 20 billion yen in Japan by 2010 and could grow globally to several hundreds of billions of yen, the Nikkei magazine said.
In an effort to create a new growth area, Canon and electronics maker Toshiba Corp said last year that they would invest 200 billion yen in a joint venture to manufacture advanced flat panel displays.
The two companies have carried out research since 1999 on SED panels.