Metals player TANAKA invests in Ambix Life Science Fund

TANAKA Kikinzoku Kogyo K.K, which is a subsidiary of TANAKA Holdings and operates the TANAKA Precious Metals manufacturing business, has announced that TANAKA made an equity contribution to Ambix Life Science Fund I, L.P., a medical device venture fund managed by Ambix Venture Management, a U.S.-based venture capital management company.

Through this equity contribution, TANAKA will reinforce its overseas business development in addition to its domestic business development. TANAKA provides metal components and materials to medical device manufacturers and participates in development projects, cooperating with and contributing to development in the healthcare field. The company has also made equity contributions to multiple medical device venture funds in the past and made the decision at this time to make a contribution to the venture fund of Ambix Ventures, which is based in Silicon Valley, one of the centres of medical device innovation, in order to provide greater support to the development of the healthcare industry.

TANAKA seeks to strengthen its ties with the U.S. healthcare industry and contribute to the progress of cutting-edge healthcare using precious metal components and materials in the healthcare field by making an equity contribution to the fund, which is managed by Aaron Berez, MD, an entrepreneur in the healthcare industry, and Peter N. Townshend.

Dr. Berez, a manager of Ambix Ventures, said: "The world has changed with the advent of the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic. However, it has also underscored the importance of the global healthcare infrastructure and challenges. We at Ambix are excited to be a small part of this ongoing challenge, in our case the continuing mission to make healthcare more efficient. We welcome TANAKA's participation as part of the Ambix team."

TANAKA is a precious metals professional organisation which provides stable supplies of precious metals using a recycling-oriented business from procurement to product development and recycling. TANAKA has long focussed on the healthcare field as an area that can contribute to society while making use of the properties of precious metals. The company performs contract manufacturing of in-vitro diagnostic kits that use gold colloids and supplies precious metal components and materials to domestic and overseas medical device manufacturers.

Precious metal parts and materials that use platinum, gold, and other metals are used in many devices for treatment within blood vessels including balloon catheters, guidewire embolization coils, and stents. Precious metals including platinum and gold have biocompatibility and high specific gravity compared to other metals, which makes them highly opaque to X-rays. As a result, when inserting balloon catheters or other medical devices into blood vessels, the treatment can be performed while confirming the location of the device within the blood vessel by viewing the precious metal portion, offering an advantage over other metals.