Sony Corporation Acquires Micronics Inc.

Sony Corporation has acquired venture corporation Micronics Inc. through its wholly owned subsidiary, U.S.-based Sony Corporation of America (SCA). Micronics develops near patient point-of-care devices for disease diagnosis, treatment monitoring and blood testing, and also provides comprehensive product development for third-party clients.

Sony executives said the company acquired Micronics to accelerate its own research, development and commercialization of point-of-care diagnostic equipment.

Near patient point-of-care diagnosis refers to the ability to facilitate rapid and accurate results via testing that can be performed in a doctor’s office, emergency room, or patient’s hospital bedside, rather than sending a patient’s specimen(s) to an off-site laboratory.

One of Micronics’ main strengths as been its ability to utilize its microfluidics technologies, which has helped the company develop a variety of near patient point-of-care molecular and immunoassay diagnostic test products. The Redmond, Wash.-based firm developed the devices through public and private partnerships here in the United States and abroad. Micronics has incorporated its experiences in developing a near patient point-of-care molecular diagnostic platform for the diagnosis of infectious disease. The detection of disease has been the company’s main focus in recent years.

Micronics will become a wholly owned subsidiary of SCA, working with the life sciences research and development team to jointly develop innovative technologies and new products. The company will continue to operate in Redmond under the current Micronics management team, headed by President Karen Hedine.

“As a new member of the Sony family, we at Micronics aim to make full use of Sony’s consumer-based technologies, product development capabilities and capacity to distribute products globally in the development of Micronics’ products,”Hedine said in a prepared statement. “We believe the combination of Sony’s expertise with that of Micronics’ will lend itself to a new generation of market-responsive diagnostic products.”

Keiji Kimura, executive vice president and executive officer of Sony Corporation, said the merger will allow the company to broaden its point-of-care product portfolio.

“For some time, Sony has applied its consumer electronics technology to contribute to research and development in the medical and healthcare fields, Kimura noted. “We believe the combination of Micronics’ development capabilities in the medical diagnosis domain and our consumer electronics and IT technologies, such as in optical discs, will enable us to offer innovative solutions that are responsive to the rapidly escalating needs for point-of-care diagnosis worldwide.”