Lantheus Medical Imaging has named Robert Spurr as the Vice President of Sales and Marketing.

Spurr, who started his tenure at the contrast agent-makers January 18, hails from Ortho-McNeil Inc., one of Johnson & Johnson's pharmaceutical divisions, where he also served as Vice President of Sales and Marketing.

The new VP comes to the North Billerica, Mass.-based company already brimming with ambitions. For his first year, he tells DOTmed News one of his main goals is moving beyond the so-called physician preference model.

In this model, followed by most biotech, device and drug companies, sales teams appeal directly to doctors with new products. But Spurr believes it's time to branch out and go after administrators, who often control access to care to large populations of patients.

"We've learned there are many people in that space...quality managers, chief medical officers, case managers, who are weighing in on what are the paradigms for treatment pathways," he says. "What we'll be doing in this first year is extending ourselves beyond the physician preference model as a broader way to serve these executives," he adds.

"PART OF THE ANSWER"

Spurr comes at a challenging time for the industry, especially for a company that makes contrast agents, as it faces both the molybdenum-99 shortage crisis and threatened cuts to Medicare reimbursements for imaging.

But Spurr says Lantheus is pursuing creative solutions to the "moly" shortage, such as relying on agents that don't use the medical isotope, like the newly launched MR agent Ablavar, which helps detect aortoiliac occlusive disease, a type of peripheral vascular disease. And he believes in getting the message out that diagnostic imaging is "part of the answer to the health care dilemma."

"Diagnostics and imaging diagnostics can bring some real value in the health care space, improving efficiency in how that gets delivered," he says.

"Fewer images in the marketplace doesn't mean a better clinical outcome," he argues. "It's about understanding differentials of ultrasound imaging, and PET imaging, and how those unique imaging approaches can bring better and faster diagnostic solutions."

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