Cancer diagnostics company, Pacific Edge (NZX: PEB), has entered into an agreement with one of New Zealand’s largest public healthcare providers, Capital & Coast District Health Board (CCDHB), to provide its suite of Cxbladder cancer diagnostic tests for the detection, management and monitoring of bladder cancer patients.

Capital & Coast is the latest in a rapidly expanding list of New Zealand public healthcare providers to incorporate Cxbladder into their clinical pathways for urology services. Capital & Coast joins the recent signing of public healthcare providers Counties Manukau and Tairawhiti DHBs who have signed agreements within the last quarter. These new commercial users join the existing public healthcare providers in Canterbury, Bay Of Plenty/Lakes, MidCentral and Waitemata in their use of Cxbladder bringing the total coverage of New Zealand’s population under contract to more than 60%.

The full suite of easy-to-use, accurate and non-invasive Cxbladder urine tests will be used by CCDHB healthcare professionals at key decision points in the bladder cancer clinical pathway, from evaluation of blood in the urine (haematuria) a key indicator of bladder cancer, through to management and monitoring for recurrence of the disease. 

Under the agreement, the Cxbladder urine sampling systems will be sent out to selected Wellington laboratory collection centres throughout the greater Wellington region, where the specimen collection will be carried out, and the samples then sent to Pacific Edge’s certified Dunedin laboratory for analysis and fast turnaround of test results.

Brent Pownall, VP Commercial and Franchise at Pacific Edge, said: “Capital and Coast [DHB] have been using Cxbladder on a limited scale now for a few years, and are very familiar with the different applications for the tests. Armed with the Cxbladder test results, we are confident they can safely and effectively change the way they manage haematuria referrals and bladder cancer surveillance for patients in the greater Wellington region, with the clear benefit for patients identified as not requiring an invasive cystoscopy procedure.”

“This is another significant commercial milestone in our goal to make Cxbladder the urologists’ preferred diagnostic tool across the clinical pathway for haematuria and bladder cancer follow-up for New Zealand physicians and patients alike. Today’s agreement with CCDHB provides coverage for patients for all four Cxbladder products.”