High-field MRI equipment loses market dominance - magnetic resonance imaging

Health Industry Today, Sept, 1991 by Greg Borzo

Philips claims to have 12% of the U.S. MRI market, although Drew estimates its share at 6%. Part of the discrepancy may be due to recent gains against GE, according to Conn.

Philips is marketing two new systems: the high-field Gyroscan S15/ACS (1.5 tesla), and the midfield Gyroscan T5 (.5 tesla). The former lists at $2.1 million "with all the bells and whistles," and the T5 lists at a maximum of $1.5 million.

"GE is positioning its new Signa .5 against our T5, and its marketing thrust has been aimed at the T5," Conn said.

The greatest amount of sales activity has been in the midfield, he said. The high field has slowed, although it remains steady. "People are realizing that field strength is not all you need," he said.

Philips sells direct through 140 general line sales people for diagnostic imaging and 25 MRI/CT specialists. Sales during the last two years have been evenly divided between hospital and alternative sites, but Conn expects the hospital market to be stronger in the next two years.

"Alternate sites will grow slower because people are worried about pending federal legislation that promises to discourage the development of alternate sites and joint ventures between hospitals and physicians," Conn said.

Customers across the board are becoming more sophisticated, he added. "They used to come to us for everything--turnkey systems. Now they realize they can maybe save some money by doing the site construction themselves and getting leasing through a third party."

Conn described Philips as a technology driven company that has always been flexible when it comes to price. "One thing that differentiates us from the competition is that we try to delineate a clear upgrade path so that customers know what's coming and can budget for it," he said.

Two vendors serve all fields

Toshiba and Siemens have staked out the advantage of offering equipment in all three fields. They differ in that Toshiba just expanded from the low field and midfield with the U.S. introduction of a high-field system for clinical study. Meanwhile Siemens, which is strong in the high field and midfield, just introduced a new midfield system and is awaiting FDA clearance on a low-field system.

Toshiba offers the MRT-150A (1.5 tesla); MRT-50A (.5 tesla);MRT-35 (.35 tesla); and Access Advance (.064 tesla). It says it has some 580 systems installed worldwide.

Siemens offers the Magnetom 63SP (1.5 tesla); Magnetom Impact (1.0 tesla); and Magnetom P8 (.2 tesla).

The Impact was introduced at the Society of Magnetic Resonance Imaging meeting in April and lists for $1.8 million. It is marketed primarily to what Siemens calls the "return-on-investment" market segment--sites that consider the cost vs. performance tradeoff as the most important factor. This could include freestanding clinics, small- and medium-sized hospitals and even large teaching hospitals, but all have strict parameters on project or operating costs.

The other two market segments are the low-throughput market segment and the performance-driven segment, which is relatively price insensitive and wants the "latest and greatest" systems.