Pacific Edge Diagnostics NZ Appoints NZ-Australia Commercial Manager

Pacific Edge Diagnostics NZ is pleased to announce the appointment of Brent Pownall as Commercial Manager. Brent Joins the team in Dunedin from Auckland and will lead the commercial activity of Pacific Edge's innovative and non-invasive bladder cancer diagnostic system Cxbladder in New Zealand and Australia.

Brent, who has extensive experience at senior management levels in the life sciences industry, will enable the company grow its capability to provide its franchise-like service to clinicians in both countries for the delivery of Pacific Edge's diagnostic tests for the early detection of cancer.

The role will also ensure processes currently developed with clinicians in NZ and Australia are readily transferable to the company's international partners delivering Cxbladder globally. This is key to ensuring a consistent clinical experience for both the clinician and the patient.

Announcing the appointment of Brent Pownall, Pacific Edge Chief Executive Officer David Darling said the roll-out of Cxbladder, since its launch last year, is steadily gaining momentum in Australia and New Zealand and we expect to have the product commercially available in the US early in the current year 2013.

"Clinicians are quick to appreciate the ability of Cxbladder as a quick, cost effective and accurate measure of the presence of the cancer and its acceptability to patients for its ease of use. Cxbladder provides urologists with the opportunity to provide an enhanced clinical perspective of the potential of a bladder tumour and from a patients perspective, reduce their reliance on the need for invasive tests such as cystoscopy to detect the bladder tumours.äó The test is now being used and evaluated by clinicians in New Zealand and Australia to provide a clinical perspective in up to seven different ways with some clinicians using the test to aid their specific practice in more than one application."

Brent is the former New Zealand Sales Director and Country Manager for MP Biomedicals, a US based life sciences distribution and manufacturing company which acquired Auckland-based startup ICP Bio, specialising in large scale separation and purification of various proteins from bovine plasma. These products are used in life science research, cell culture, and diagnostic and therapeutic drug applications at laboratory scale up to large-scale biopharmaceutical manufacturing.

Brent has recently completed his Master of Business Administration from Auckland University and has tertiary qualifications from Lincoln University and the University of New South Wales.