Following the announcement of Fujifilm's diversification, its price on the Tokyo Stock Exchange went up Tuesday by 1 percent to $36.69 (3,940 yen) per share, while Toyama shares were constant at $8.14 (874 yen) per share.
Yoshikazu Aoki, vice president of Fujifilm, disclosed to Bloomberg last week that demand for photo film has drastically plummeted by 75 percent in 2007 from peak demand in 2000.
The new drug being tested by Toyama, if it secures U.S. Food and Drug approval, may be available in the market by December 2009, according to Yousuke Furuta, the discoverer of the new drug expected to challenge the sales of Roche Holding's Tamiflu.
In preparation to challenge the market hold of Tamiflu, which yielded a 2006 sales of $2 billion for Roche, Fujifilm is spending $1.4 billion (154.6 billion yen) to hasten research on the new treatment called T-705.
T-705 seeks to fight polymerase, an enzyme virus that multiplies inside the human body. The new medication is also a potent weapon against seasonal flu and possibly against Rift Valley fever that has claimed thousands of African lives.
Fujifilm president Shigetaka Komori said in a news conference that the company aims to develop their newly acquired medical business with an annual sales of $2.8 billion (300 billion yen) into a major global healthcare firm with an annual sales of $9.3 billion (1 trillion yen) by 2018.
