Structural changes and competition

Accuray's main competitors include Varian Medical Systems, the market leader in radiation therapy, and Elekta, the number two player, according to a 2011 Koncept Analytics report. The previous third place company, Siemens, quit the linear accelerator business last year, but announced in the spring a global partnership with Varian to represent its radiotherapy and radiosurgery equipment.


Levine said he had "great respect for the people in this space that are larger than us," but said "there are ways we can find the right path for ourselves downstream."

"I've lived it before," he added.

He also said that structural changes in health care delivery in the United States, as well as the rocky business environment in austerity-wracked Europe, mean health care companies, like Accuray, will have to focus even harder on data-driven evidence of clinical effectiveness or outcomes to succeed.

"I'm a believer [that] if your primary product or service or therapy is clinically efficacious and you can position cost justification around what you’re doing...you’ll be better prepared to navigate the turmoil there as well as anybody."

Thomson's role

In its press release announcing Thomson's departure, Accuray said he would likely stay on in a consulting role, which Levine partly confirmed. "At his point I can't answer definitively whether that will or won't happen, but that's the expectation," he said.

Thomson had been CEO of the company since March 2002, and oversaw the expansion of its installed base and its acquisition of TomoTherapy last year.

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