Sony established a joint venture to study genetic code

The venture is named P5 Inc and has a market capitalization of 118.75 million yen, equivalent to $ 1.13 million. It was jointly established by Sony with M3 (a medical firm that Sony is a major shareholder) and Illumina (a US-based genetic code research equipment manufacturer).

Sony said the tripartite cooperation will contribute to creating a "genetic information platform" and provide genetic analysis services for Japanese businesses or research institutes as they need. The joint venture will also synthesize genetic data with relevant information to support other research areas. In addition, P5 activities can help develop new therapies, create ways of detecting the source, the risk of spreading the disease.

Sony hopes that the operation of the joint venture will expand to each patient, not only for scientific research, but also to provide personalized medicine and health care services. . Sony and M3 will be major shareholders in the P5 joint venture, while Illumina is a small shareholder. The company is expected to be completed by the end of February this year.

The health sector is gradually becoming an important area for Sony besides electronics and technology. CEO Kaz Hirai has announced plans to turn health into one of the focal points of a long-term business strategy. Since 2012 Sony has also invested heavily in medical-related technologies, such as spending $ 644 million to establish a joint venture with Olympus to develop medical devices for medical use.