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The clinical analyzer and microscope businesses are growing
steadily thanks to these tangible and intangible strengths. In their
current state, however, they are not businesses that we expect to
have a major impact on earnings growth in the future. On the
other hand, considering their potential contribution to our pres-
ence in the genome medicine market, which is expected to grow
significantly in the future, the clinical analyzer and microscope
businesses take on an entirely new meaning altogether.
Although future growth is limited in the market for testing
with clinical analyzers, such as biological and virus testing, this
constraint on growth is released when considering genome-based
clinical testing. Genome-based clinical testing offers the sub-
stantial benefit of being effective at the prevention as well as treat-
ment of illness. For the sake of controlling medical costs, more
attention will be paid to prevention rather than treatment in the
future. More advanced preventative medicine will be possible with
the use of genome technology. We believe that this will be the
turning point for the future of clinical testing.
In the microscope business, it is now possible to examine the
interior of a cell, a feat that was impossible with previous tech-
nologies, with a laser microscope and perform image and other
detailed analysis of the cell. Cutting-edge research in genome
medicine is advancing from the analysis of the genome itself to
the analysis of proteins, and is progressing even further to the
analysis of genomes and active proteins inside living cells. Our
biological microscopes are indispensable tools to these advance-
OLYMPUS 2003
ments in genome research. Accordingly, since our customers are
on the cutting edge of genome medicine, our microscopes are on
the cutting edge of science as well.
While clinical analyzers and microscopes are long-held busi-
nesses, as they grow and advance they will eventually unite with
the genome medical business. Olympus is able to build interac-
tive relationships with its customers by strengthening these exist-
ing businesses. Customer assets like these are one of Olympus’s
greatest strengths.
Q3: What initiatives are underway in the genome medical business?
The Company embarked on the genome medical business with
the launch of the Genome Medical Business Project at the end
of . Olympus is now making all-out efforts in genome med-
icine with the launch of the Life Science Group. Backed by two
and a half years of work in the genome field, we are expanding
operations by leveraging similarities with the existing business-
es of clinical analyzers and microscopes. W e aim to make genome
medicine into a solid platform for Group operations.
We plan to maximize our advantages as a hardware manu-
facturer in the field of genome medicine. Some of our first break-
throughs were in optical technology, a forte of Olympus. Our
analyzers were natural primary candidates for genome applica-
tions, and our first commercial products for the genome medical
SC E
L I F E S C I E N CE G R O U P
C O M P R I S E S T H R E E
C O R E B U S I N E S S E S
While clinical analyz-
ers and microscopes
are long-held busi-
nesses, as they grow
and advance they will
eventually unite with
the genome medical
business.
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