European Patent Office Grants Pacific Edge Patent For Cxbladder

The European Patent Office representing 38 countries in Europe has granted Pacific Edge patent protection for its Cxbladder technology that enables the accurate and non-invasive detection of urothelial carcinomas.

Welcoming this outcome, Pacific Edge Chief Executive Officer David Darling says Europe is a market for the Cxbladder technology that is already steadily gaining commercial traction in the USA as well as New Zealand and Australia. Within Europe, Belgium, Malta, Denmark and Spain have the highest incidences of bladder cancer.

"Europe suffers the highest incidence of bladder cancer in men and women followed by North America. There are approximately 151,000¹ new cases (incidence) detected every year within the geographical jurisdiction of the European Patent Office is approximately 2 times that of the US, which has an incidence of bladder cancer of 74,690[1]."

The European Patent Office is the patent agency for all countries in the European Union plus Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Turkey, Monaco, Iceland, Norway, the Republic of Macedonia, San Marino, Albania and Serbia.

"Our immediate focus is on building the momentum of sales in the US, the world's largest healthcare market, where the Company has just now started into its second year of commercial operations. Sales are tracking expectations following acceptance of Cxbladder as an adjunct technology by four national provider networks and an active marketing program to clinicians and healthcare organisations. Consideration can now be given to growing our commercial footprint for Cxbladder in European countries."

Meanwhile Pacific Edge has been rapidly extending its portfolio of intellectual property based on its molecular diagnostic technology with the recent grant of patents in the US for the prognosis of melanoma, in Japan for the prognosis of colorectal cancer and in China for the detection of gastric cancer.

"Extending and further developing our intellectual capital is essential for the long term commercial success of the Company and the creation of additional value for shareholders," David Darling says.

Further developments of the Cxbladder technology are underway with the next product, Cxbladder Triage due to be released later this year. Cxbladder Triage will allow clinicians to segregate patients who have presented to their GP or urologist with haematuria (blood in the urine, an early indicator of possible bladder cancer) who have a low probability of having urothelial carcinoma. The use of this new product Cxbladder Triage will provide upside and cost saving for the patient, the clinician and the healthcare system to exclude a significant proportion of these patients from having to have an expensive and invasive clinical work-up for bladder cancer.

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