Pacific Edge widens annual loss as sales start trickling in
By Suze Metherell
May 28 (BusinessDesk) - Pacific Edge widened its annual net loss by 35 percent after the bladder cancer test developer
turned its first revenue from its primary US market.
The Dunedin-based company made a loss of $9.95 million, or 3.2 cents per share, in the 12 months ended March 31,
compared to a loss of $6.92 million, or 2.5 cents, a year earlier, it said in a statement. Sales rose 63 percent to
$838,000, while trading revenue more than doubled to $523,000. The company is targeting $100 million in gross revenue
from the US market in the next five years.
The company has signed four deals with US national network healthcare managers to supply its diagnostic test to
providers covering about 130.6 million people. The non-invasive bladder cancer test was adopted by New Zealand district
health boards earlier this year.
"Whilst the New Zealand and Australian markets are important to us from a product development and commercialisation
process perspective, it is the scale and accessibility of the American market that is paramount to the success of the
company," said chairman Chris Swann. "Evaluating hematuria (blood in urine) in American patients for bladder cancer is a
significant market of scale and could be worth up to $100 million in gross revenue for our company in five years' time."
Coinciding with the first announcements of the US deals the company raised $20 million from shareholders to fund its
push into the world's biggest economy. Pacific Edge held cash and equivalents of $20.4 million as at March 31, up from
$10.7 million the year earlier and is debt free.
The shares last traded at 97 cents, having soared 150 percent last year on news of its US deals. Since its mid-March
debut on the NZX 50 Index the shares have dropped 58 percent amid a global sell off of growth-orientated tech stocks. No
dividend for the stock will be paid this year.
(BusinessDesk)