Pacific Edge continues to haemorrhage cash as it seeks to establish itself as a world leader in bladder cancer diagnosis, but the company remains upbeat about its prospects for the coming year.
Chief executive David Darling said the 2012 financial year had been another year of high performance with many great successes and several conclusive commercial outcomes.
Cxbladder, the company's trademarked diagnostic product, had been launched into the market and the process of adoption and generation of initial revenue was under way.
The first commercial product was now on the market and customers, patients and doctors were able to access the Cxbladder test kits in New Zealand, Australia, the United States and, later this year, in Spain and Portugal.
"The outcome of this will be to improve our earnings situation to a point where within the next several years we can emerge as a growing and leading cancer molecular diagnostics company."
The company's financial results, released yesterday, showed the company increased its operating revenue by 112% to $646,502 in the year ended March from $305,002 in the previous corresponding period (pcp).
However, the highest increase in revenue came from interest earned which rose to $341,790 in the period from $82,230 in 2011.
Grants received fell to $107,000 from $201,000 and licence fees generated $163,000 from nil in the pcp.
Total expenses rose 25% to $3.2 million to help push the operating loss to $4.1 million, up from $3.6 million in the pcp.
During the year, 23 million ordinary shares were issued at 22c each in a private placement.
Another 79.3 million shares were issued at 19c in direct offers, raising a total of $20.1 million in cash.
That allowed Pacific Edge to increase its total equity at balance date to $17.7 million from $2.69 million in the pcp.
Cash flows from operating activities blew out to a deficit of $3.6 million from a deficit of $2.9 million in the pcp.
Mr Darling said the capital raising provided enough liquidity for its medium-term operations, enabling Pacific Edge to take advantage of Cxbladder in the market place and in the US, in particular.
"With the expectation of receiving some revenue from diagnostic sales in 2012 and significantly greater revenue in 2012, the company's short to medium-term financial risks are much reduced."
Should expansion opportunities occur for the product in a new geography, or for one of the company's other products under development, the company would seek to raise additional capital to expedite the market opportunity, he said.
"Our operating activities are still making a loss and therefore consuming cash. With our recently announced licensing partnerships, we would reasonably expect an increasing revenue stream from product royalties as we enter and gain momentum in Australia, New Zealand, Spain and Portugal and the US.
"Successful entry, adoption of the product and rapid penetration in those markets would also further reduce any financial risks," Mr Darling said.
