Pacific Edge e-commerce site for bladder cancer testing

9 July 2014

Pacific Edge to launch New Zealand e-commerce site for bladder cancer testing service

Cancer diagnostic developer and service provider Pacific Edge is set to launch an e-commerce platform later this month to make its Cxbladder technology available to all New Zealanders from the convenience of their home.

The e-commerce platform on the company’s website, www.cxbladder.com, provides New Zealand residents with the ability to order a urine testing service on-line with samples analysed by Pacific Edge Diagnostics at its Dunedin laboratory. A detailed test report will be sent directly to the purchaser’s general practitioner or nominated healthcare professional. The e-commerce site has been reviewed and approved by Medsafe, the New Zealand Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Authority, and TAPS, Therapeutic Advertising Pre-vetting System of the Advertising Standards Authority.

Pacific Edge Diagnostics’ Commercial Director Brent Pownall says the service will allow those people with haematuria (blood in the urine, one of the early indicators of possible bladder cancer) a readily accessible and easy to use service that will provide actionable results to them and their clinicians. This translates to a higher level of confidence in the results, giving the patient greater peace of mind.

“Multi-centre clinical trials conducted in New Zealand, Australia and published in the Journal of Urology in September 2012 have demonstrated that Pacific Edge’s non-invasive diagnostic Cxbladder system out-performs all benchmark technologies by detecting nearly all of the tumours of concern to urologists.”

Purchasers of the urine testing service in New Zealand will be sent the proprietary Urine Sampling System (USS) developed by Pacific Edge, to be used for collecting a urine sample for the Cxbladder test. The easy to use USS allows purchasers the convenience of collecting a sample in their own home, without the need to visit their doctor or specialist.

“There are many New Zealanders who are aware that there is a technology available that can complement or provide an alternative to the standard invasive tests, but are not sure how to access the Cxbladder service other than through their doctor. This e-commerce site will enable patients to take advantage of Cxbladder to maintain a regime of evaluation that suits their individual needs. The physician and clinician gain the additional information on a timely and regular basis to supplement their clinical regime.”

“Our goal is to make this new technology as readily accessible as buying an ice-cream from the corner dairy. This will ensure that the disease can be found early and that clinicians will get to know very early on which patients are high priority.”

“The launch of the e-commerce platform in New Zealand will be a further addition to Pacific Edge’s drive to build commercial revenues from Cxbladder. Providing patients with direct access to choose Cxbladder is a key part of our commercial strategy, to drive demand for the product in the New Zealand market from both the patient and the clinician”

Health statistics in New Zealand show that approximately 600 people a year are diagnosed with bladder cancer and there are around 170 deaths a year attributed to the symptoms, but many times more are referred for urological workups following a diagnosis of haematuria. On average less than one in ten of those suffering from some form of haematuria are likely to be diagnosed with bladder cancer.

Pacific Edge continues its focus on driving revenue for its urology based technology Cxbladder in the world’s largest health market, the USA and achieving the company’s target of having sales revenue there of $100 million a year after five years of trading. Four National Provider Networks (NPN) in the USA have already approved Cxbladder for inclusion in their networks.

Pacific Edge is committed to boosting its sales and marketing team in the USA this year and building relationships with Large Urology Groups, Integrated Healthcare Providers and additional provider networks.

About Pacific Edge
Pacific Edge Limited (NZX: PEB) is a New Zealand based cancer diagnostic company specialising in the discovery and commercialisation of diagnostic and prognostic technology for the early detection and monitoring of cancer. Products in development and in clinical trials are accurate and simple to use genomic and proteomic tools for the earlier detection, improved characterisation and better management of gastric, bladder, colorectal cancers and melanoma. The company has completed and released its first product for the detection of bladder cancer, Cxbladder, and is actively marketing the product to physicians and clinicians in New Zealand, Australia and the USA and soon in Spain.

www.pacificedge.co.nz

About Pacific Edge Diagnostics
Pacific Edge takes its exciting cancer detection tests to market through its wholly owned subsidiaries, Pacific Edge Diagnostics NZ Ltd and Pacific Edge Diagnostics USA Ltd, and selected commercial partners in Australia and Spain, Healthscope and Oryzon respectively.

www.pacificedgedx.com

About Cxbladder
Cxbladder is a proprietary, accurate molecular diagnostic test that enables the non-invasive detection of bladder and other urinary tract cancers from a small volume of urine. Cxbladder is commercialised in the USA as a Laboratory Developed Test (LDT). It provides physicians and clinicians with a quick, cost effective and accurate measure of the presence of the cancer, and provides urologists with the opportunity to reduce their reliance on the need for invasive tests such as cystoscopy. The Cxbladder cancer detection test has been validated by a multicentre, international clinical study. Results published in the Journal of Urology (Sept 2012) show that Cxbladder out-performed all of the benchmark technologies in the clinical trial and detected nearly all of the tumours of concern to a urologist; At a performance of 82% sensitivity and 85% specificity the test sees 100% of T1, 100% of T2, 100% of T3, 100% of Tis and 100% of upper urinary tract cancers as well as greater than 95% of high grade tumours.

www.cxbladder.com

About Bladder Cancer
Globally, bladder cancer has the 9th highest incidence and the 4th highest incidence for men. One of the early symptoms of bladder cancer is the presence of blood in the urine, haematuria. People with haematuria often present to their general practitioner before being referred on to a urologist.

There are a number of ‘at risk’ occupations that have shown a much higher incidence of bladder cancer. Fire fighters and fire control officers have shown in a US study to have a twice the incidence of bladder cancer over non fire fighters. Smoking is a significant contributing factor (over 50% in males and 33% in females, and approximately one of every two new incidences of bladder cancer is linked to smoking). Exposure to certain industrial chemicals or carcinogens increases risks for some occupations e.g. hairdressers, painters, printers, fire fighters and metal workers and chemical engineers. Incidence increases with age so the older you are, the greater the potential for bladder cancer.

Bladder cancer has a very high recurrence rate of approximately 50%-70% with up to 30% of these recurring as later stage tumours. This is a higher recurrence than for skin cancer! However, bladder cancers are highly treatable, especially if detected in the early stages. If diagnosed early there is a much higher probability of survival for early stage tumours relative to later stage tumours. This makes timely and regular surveillance and monitoring of this cancer a key element of the clinical process and of the individual’s annual healthcare plan.

ENDS

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