One of the largest non-profit healthcare providers in the United States has approved commercial use of Pacific Edge’s Cxbladder cancer diagnostic kits.
Kaiser Permanente has more than 12million members, operates 39 hospitals and employs about 23,000 physicians.
Cxbladder urine sampling systems would be sent directly to Kaiser Permanente patients in their homes for onward delivery to Pacific Edge’s US laboratory in Pennsylvania for analysis and reporting.
Patients would also be able to provide a sample at one of the many Kaiser Permanente sample collection clinics.
In a statement, Pacific Edge chief executive David Darling said the clinical utility provided by the Cxbladder in-home sampling programme had also been recognised in both the US and New Zealand.
In New Zealand, three large public healthcare providers had been actively using Cxbladder for in-home sample collection and two public healthcare providers had moved to mainstream commercial use of two Cxbladder products.
Remote consultations and the ability for patients to supply test samples from home would help protect patients and free up essential capacity for healthcare providers around the world, both during the Covid-19 pandemic and beyond, Dr Darling said.
Last month, the Dunedin-based company reported an after-tax net loss of $18.9million for the year ended March 31 and said achieving a cashflow break-even position remained a priority.
The US remained the company’s largest market, providing 79% of total laboratory throughput during the year.
