Pacific Edge targets more US contracts

Jackie Walker, chief executive of Pacific Edge Diagnostics USA.

Cancer-test company working with government, veterans health providers

Cancer diagnostics developer Pacific Edge is negotiating more major commercial agreements in America, its US boss says.

Shares in the Dunedin-based firm last month surged by more than 250 per cent, from 50c to an all-time-high of $1.75, after the company announced it had secured deals with two healthcare provider networks - the America's Choice Provider Network and FedMed.

Combined, the two networks will provide 54 million Americans with access to Pacific Edge's Cxbladder cancer tests.

Pacific Edge shares fell back 2c to $1.18 last night after the company announced a $20.5 million capital raising on October 23, which will fund the ongoing rollout of Cxbladder in the US, the world's biggest healthcare market.

Jackie Walker, chief executive of Pacific Edge Diagnostics USA, said the US Centres for Medicare and Medicade Services (CMS) - which oversees Government-funded health insurance programmes for senior citizens and low-income earners - was impressed with Cxbladder's potential.

"Together (CMS) cover about a hundred million lives," said Walker, who was in New Zealand last week. "So obviously we have to work closely with them and we're in the process of doing that right now working to get coverage from them."

She said it was difficult to say when a deal with CMS might be announced.

"Things continue to change in the CMS world," Walker said. "We're working very closely with them (on) what it will take to get coverage and put together all the clinical data and information they need to be satisfied to start paying for the test."

She said Pacific Edge was also working closely with the Veterans Administration, which provides healthcare to former members of the US armed forces.

"The difference (from CMS) is the VA is both a provider and a payer." The VA was a particularly lucrative opportunity for Pacific Edge.

"Certainly there are a large number of vets who in their service for their country were exposed to a lot of environmental things (such as Agent Orange in Vietnam) that increase the incidence of bladder cancer."

Walker said Pacific Edge - whose American lab and headquarters is in Hershey, Pennsylvania - now had two sales representatives and an area sales director in the US.

"We're adding (sales) reps over the next few months, focusing on the Northeast and large group practices (of urologists)."

Walker said American urologists had been very impressed with the New Zealand-developed technology.

"The data we present to them is very compelling. The test is a better and more accurate test than the tools they have today."

Pacific Edge had to overcome the scepticism medical specialists often had towards new technology.

"They want to see the data and they want to try it in their own hands and determine how best to use it in their own clinical pathway."

Pacific Edge, which reported a net loss of $6.9 million in its last financial year, has touted Cxbladder as being almost a third cheaper than existing methods of detecting bladder cancer. The technology has its roots in the US-led Human Genome Project, which identified the roughly 30,000 genes in human DNA.

In May, the company announced the MidCentral District Health Board, based in Palmerston North, would be the first district health board to be a commercial customer for Cxbladder.

The company has other products in development, including a test for gastric cancer.

Jackie Walker, chief executive of Pacific Edge Diagnostics USA