To strengthen its presence in the U.S. medical market, Canon Inc. is opening a new subsidiary, Canon Healthcare USA, an investment it estimates will cost $300 million.

The company said the primary objective is to “thoroughly strengthen business competitiveness” in various segments of the medical industry, including diagnostics such as CT, MR and ultrasound; and medical component businesses, including X-ray tubes and detectors and key MR components. It also is looking to grow its influence in healthcare IT and in vitro diagnostics.

Canon is considering the greater Cleveland area as a potential home base for Canon Healthcare USA. The region is already the headquarters for Quality Electrodynamics, a developer of MR components that was acquired by the Canon Group in 2019.

Canon Medical Systems USA, the U.S. subsidiary of Canon Medical Systems Corporation (Canon Medical), will transfer a portion of its product sales and service operations to Canon Healthcare USA to allow the company to focus more on growing its share of medical diagnostic systems in the U.S. market.

Canon Medical will also take over the advanced technology research activities that Canon has been performing with Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham Women’s Hospital at the Healthcare Optics Research Laboratory (HORL) in Boston for the last 10 years. Along with the Global Marketing Center, it will promote joint commercialization research.

While not definite, representatives for Canon Healthcare USA are expected to include Hiroyuki Fujita as chairman and Hisashi Tachizaki as president. All told, the new U.S. subsidiary is expected to employ approximately 20 individuals, and has a tentative establishment date of January 2023.