Marubeni Corporation (“Marubeni”) and LSI Medience Corporation (“LSI Medience”) will incorporate a Joint Venture Company, Medi Linx Laboratory Inc. (“Medi Linx”), in the Republic of the Philippines together with Metro Pacific Hospital Holdings, Inc. (“MPHHI”), the largest private hospital group in the Philippines. Medi Linx will be the first provider of a centralized clinical laboratory testing service(*)to hospitals in the Philippines using advanced Japanese technology.
The Philippines has maintained a GDP growth rate of more than 6% in the past five years and has large growth potential among Asian countries. However, growing demand for medical services resulting from both rapid population increase and an aging society are anticipated. To address this issue, the country must develop medical facilities and improve the quality of medical services.
From August 2017, Medi Linx will launch an outsourcing clinical laboratory testing service to medical facilities and research institutions in Metro Manilla. Medi Linx will send client samples to its central laboratory for testing and report the results to clients. While about 4,000 different tests are available in Japan, the Philippines has just 700–800 tests. Medi Linx will contribute to the development of medical services in the Philippines by introducing a high-quality Japanese clinical laboratory testing service supported by LSI Medience’s decades of experience in Japan, and by improving the quality of clinical testing in the Philippines. In the future, this service is expected to be expanded to other large cities around hospitals invested in by MPHHI.
MPHHI is a group company of Metro Pacific Investments Corporation, one of the largest conglomerates in the Philippines. With 13 hospitals (2,900 beds) including Makati Medical Center, one of the largest general hospitals, two healthcare colleges and two primary care clinics, MPHHI is the largest private provider of premier hospital services in the Philippines. Through this project, MPHHI aims to upgrade the quality of clinical laboratory standards in the Philippine hospital industry and increase efficiencies due to economies of scale.
LSI Medience is a group company of Life Science Institute, Inc., a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation, and provides clinical laboratory testing services, developing, manufacturing and sales of diagnostic reagents and instruments, and the service of analysis for non-clinical and clinical studies in the field of drug development. In addition, LSI Medience has contributed to the promotion of anti-doping activities and sports as the only WADA-accredited (**) Japanese institution for analyzing doping tests. Through this project, LSI Medience aims to contribute to the improvement of the quality of clinical testing with its extensive experience in Japan and enrich the Philippine laboratory landscape by implementing stringent standards which is a very significant input to the Philippine laboratory best practices.
Marubeni aims to establish a new business base in healthcare and medical fields in the Philippines, and develop similar kinds of business, including hospital medical service, in Asian countries.