Following almost seven years as a listed company and more than $14 million spent in research and development, Minister of Health Tony Ryall yesterday opened a specialist $500,000 diagnostic laboratory at Pacific Edge's base in the University of Otago's Centre for Innovation; capable of processing up to 35,000 tests a year.
Pacific Edge announced in late March it had secured a contract for its diagnostic CX-bladder test with Australia's second-largest private hospital provider, Healthscope Ltd, followed now by the license agreement with Spain's Oryzon SA, a specialist diagnostic's company, including development of biomarkers for oncology and neurodegenerative diseases.
Pacific Edge chief executive David Darling said the new laboratory would perform the novel cancer detection test for bladder cancer developed by the group's research team.
"With the opening of New Zealand's first purpose-built laboratory for the detection of bladder cancer, using the CX-bladder product, Pacific Edge Diagnostics is now engaged in the commercial release of the CX-bladder product to clinicians in Australia, New Zealand, Spain and Portugal," he said.
On the question of cashflows, Mr Darling described 2011 as a "year of priming the pump" and expected a "revenue boost" to be more evident during trading through 2012.
Shares in Pacific Edge yesterday, which have traded up from 25c since early May, gained only slightly yesterday to hit 30c, on low volumes.
While Pacific Edge booked a $1.39 million loss for its half-year to September, it also raised $4.7 million, which Mr Darling said yesterday gave the company "adequate funding" to roll out commercialisation of its CX-bladder diagnostic, specifically targeting the United States and Singapore.
"We have had to be selective of [potential] parties for the roll-out of the franchises ... they have got to have molecular capability," he said.
A crucial part to the roll-out is establishing "central laboratory services", such as the Dunedin lab, where tests will be processed in Australia, Spain by the end of the year and possibly Singapore in the future.
Mr Darling said while Dunedin had the capacity for processing 35,000 tests annually, the potential for combined Australia and New Zealand tests was 55,000-85,000 per year.
Pacific Edge's full-year report is being audited and will be released in about a week.
Bladder cancer
• Pacific Edge's CX bladder test is a fast non-invasive test measuring the activity of five genes from a small sample of a patient's urine to accurately diagnose bladder cancer.
• Bladder cancer is the world's ninth highest incidence cancer and incurs the highest total medical costs of any cancer. Spain has the world's highest incidence of bladder cancer per capita.
Source: Pacific Edge
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