Pacific Edge Enters Commercial Agreement With Canterbury District Health Board

World-first as Cxbladder moves to replace cytology in clinical guidelines

Cancer diagnostics company, Pacific Edge Limited (NZX:PEB) has entered into a commercial agreement to provide its innovative Cxbladder diagnostic technology to the Canterbury District Health Board (CDHB) for primary care referral in the evaluation of haematuria. Haematuria (blood in the urine) is a key indicator of bladder cancer and established clinical guidelines are that all patients with haematuria receive a urological assessment to establish the cause. The 12 month agreement will, after an initial 200 tests, see the replacement of cytology in Canterbury’s HealthPathway for patients with haematuria being assessed for the possibility of bladder cancer.

GM Planning and Funding at the Canterbury DHB, Carolyn Gullery said: “Canterbury District Health Board will use the Cxbladder technology in its new haematuria HealthPathway. The Cxbladder test performance will be audited at the conclusion of an initial 200 tests. The expected successful performance will see Cxbladder formally replace cytology on the Canterbury DHB’s HealthPathways, making it available through GPs to the thousands of patients cared for in the Canterbury region.

“We believe that Cxbladder will help support our strategy for delivering more care in the community closer to where people live. It also has the potential to lower overall costs in evaluating haematuria and the detection of bladder cancer. The Canterbury DHB has a track record of deploying innovative and progressive clinical solutions, and we are delighted to offer this high performance New Zealand technology from Pacific Edge.”

The Canterbury HealthPathways are the main source of assessment, management and referral information about Canterbury health services for community healthcare providers, and are used by 80% of general practitioners more than six times per week.

Dr Peter Davidson of Urology Associates said: “Urology Associates has been involved in the evaluation of the Cxbladder products for some time and we enthusiastically support the adoption of Cxbladder Triage for use in our clinical practice.”

An arrangement with the Canterbury integrated laboratory services will see Cxbladder sampling systems readily available to the region’s healthcare providers through an extensive network of laboratory collection centres (Canterbury SCL and Canterbury Health Laboratories) and general practices throughout the region. Samples will be sent to Pacific Edge’s Dunedin laboratory for analysis and fast turn-around of test results.

CEO of Pacific Edge, David Darling, commented: “We have a long working relationship with both Canterbury District Health Board and Urology Associates and are delighted to be working with them to enable ready access to Cxbladder for patients in the South Island. This is a comprehensive process involving the whole healthcare community and represents a first for Pacific Edge in the formal provision of Cxbladder technology to replace cytology.”