17-Mar-16 Canon Inc is to buy Toshiba Corp's medical equipment unit for JPY665.5 bn (USD6 bn). Canon, which makes X-ray machines and eye examination devices, has been trying for years to expand into high-margin medical devices, particularly as demand for traditional cameras has declined with the advent of smartphones. [image: Reuters]

18-Feb-16 If current trends continue, half the world’s population (4.8 bn people) will be short-sighted in just over three decades, with one-fifth of those expected to have a significantly increased risk of blindness. 96% of teenagers in Korea are short-sighted and in Singapore, China and Japan the rate is around 80-90%. [image: Nomad_Soul / Shutterstock.com]

17-Feb-16 Bausch + Lomb has entered a partnership in India with global technology company Bosch. This cooperation brings together leading providers of eye care solutions and technology in India, to market diagnostic devices in the ophthalmic segment. Bausch + Lomb will market Bosch's Fundus retina camera, which can detect conditions such as cataract at an early stage. [image: Bausch & Lomb]

21-Jan-16 The Association of Malaysian Medical Industries (AMMI) supports the the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which it expects to provide wider access for exports into TPP countries, especially the US with which Malaysia has no trade agreement. Malaysia's medical devices industry mainly produces disposables, but is moving up the value chain and producing more high value medical devices such as orthopaedics and dialysers. [image: Hafzi Mohamed / TMR]

15-Dec-15 Ovitz Corporation, a startup that develops portable devices to check eyes, is set to support developing countries. Kim Joung-yoon, CEO of Ovitz, said “There are 4.5 billion people across the globe in need of visual correction, and 80% of cases are preventable... However, it is actually very difficult for the disadvantaged in developing countries to get proper eye exams." [image: Business Korea]