Cincinnati-based companies team to provide health service to pets

By

Posted 7:54AM on Monday, April 8, 2002

CINCINNATI - The company that has been feeding family pets for years is now taking an interest in their medical care as well. Iams pet food, a subsidiary of Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble Co., joined with ProScan Imaging, another Cincinnati-area company, to open a pet imaging center last week in Vienna, Va., near Washington's Dulles Airport. For ProScan, partly owned by former Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Cris Collinsworth, it is a leap into the world of providing MRI scans for dogs and cats, not just humans. For P&G, maker of Crest toothpaste and Pantene shampoo, it is another step into the services business and a try at taking advantage of Iams' reputation with pet owners. The companies are betting $2 million on an imaging machine that pet owners will pay up to $1,200 for the procedure, if it means possibly avoiding unnecessary surgery for their dog or cat. "We really believe the time has come for companion animals to benefit from the most sophisticated technology available," Jeff Ansell, president at Iams' Dayton headquarters. "This can be a viable service business." Ansell and Pomeranz said the company would consider expansion if it did well. "It seemed to be a perfect marriage," said Stephen Pomeranz, chief executive at ProScan. "We understand the technology and how to apply it on the human side ... but we are not veterinarians. Iams understands what it takes to have an animal live a long life through nutrition." Pomeranz, who has five pets and six children, said technological advances in imaging have helped humans, but have not eliminated many unnecessary surgeries for animals. MRI scans allow detailed images of tissue, giving better images of injuries and diseases. "This has really augmented human care," Pomeranz said. "But animal imaging has been a little bit slower to come around." Because many dog and cat injuries are easily misdiagnosed with incomplete information, the market for the MRI center is growing, he said. P&G has not ventured often into retail or service businesses. One recent experiment, the Culinary Sol cooking school, ended last month when P&G sold it to a manager. But P&G also is trying to spread the name of its most valuable brands whenever possible. The best example is Crest toothpaste, which has put the Crest name on its Whitestrips and Spinbrush products in the last two years, building hundreds of millions of dollars in extra sales.