M3 medical portal, backed by Sony, gets into medical devices with MedTecHeart investment

M3 Inc., a Sony (TYO:6758)-backed Japanese web portal for physicians, is getting into the medical device game with an investment in MedTecHeart and its outside-the-body cardiac assist device.

A joint venture between Tokyo Medical & Dental University and the Tokyo Institute of Technology, MedTecHeart’s extracorporeal ventricular assist device is designed to treat patients with heart failure using a magnetically levitated pump.

“Practical realization of this device will contribute to saving the lives of and improving treatment as well as the quality of life for patients with severe cardiac dysfunction,” M3 said in a press release. Sony owns a 40% stake in the firm.

The investment is part of M3’s new “seeds rocket” business “to boost promising start-ups or technologies by holding a stake in and providing comprehensive support towards the development of that business” via its M3i subsidiary, the company said.

“Our targets are small firms in the areas such as regenerative medicine, medical devices, digital health care and robotics for medicine in Japan, Europe and the U.S.,” M3i CEO Kazuhiro Umeda told Bloomberg. “Our strategy is to buy majority stakes in target firms owning advanced technology and patents, and the size of 1 deal may be around ¥300 million [$2.7 million].”

Sony got into medtech back in 2011 with the acquisition of diagnostics device maker Micronics Inc. A year later it bought an 11% stake in Olympus (TYO:7733). In 2013 the electronics conglomerate put $10 million into Israeli medical device holding company Rainbow Medical.

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