Public Healthcare provider, Hawke’s Bay District Health Board, to roll out Cxbladder tests

Cancer diagnostics company, Pacific Edge Limited (NZX: PEB) have signed an agreement with Hawke’s Bay District Health Board (HBDHB), further extending the adoption and commercial coverage of Cxbladder for the New Zealand population.

This latest announcement follows a succession of public healthcare providers, which have signed up within the last six months to offer Cxbladder testing as part of urology services within their regions, including Counties Manukau, Hauora Tairawhiti and Capital & Coast/Hutt Valley DHBs.  The majority of New Zealand’s public health care providers now provide access to Cxbladder, with its ease of use, cost effectiveness and accuracy providing multiple benefits to patients and physicians.

Hawke’s Bay DHB, based in Hastings, covers an area along the North Island’s east coast, which includes Wairoa, Napier, Hastings and Waipukurau, serving a population, of which one-quarter are Māori and with a higher than average number of people aged 50 years or older. 

Hawke’s Bay urologists, Kim Broome, David Mason, Leanne Shaw and urology registrar Josh Silverman are driving the adoption of Cxbladder in the region, where patients will be able to provide a urine specimen at their local diagnostic lab, potentially avoiding the need to travel to the urology clinic or hospital for investigation. 

Mr Mason said he and the entire Hawke’s Bay urology team were delighted to have Cxbladder testing available for patients. “It will speed up the management of patient diagnosis and provide us with greater efficiencies in investigations for patients,” Mr Mason said.

Brent Pownall, VP Commercial and Franchise at Pacific Edge, said: “We now have strong clinical buy-in for the accuracy, efficacy and utility of Cxbladder across the clinical pathway for haematuria and bladder cancer follow-up. 

“Collectively, the New Zealand urology community is embracing the Cxbladder technology, leading to significant changes in the way bladder cancer is diagnosed and managed,with the majority of New Zealand’s public healthcare care providers now providing access to Cxbladder for their patient populations.

“This is another milestone for Pacific Edge in New Zealand, and one which is also being followed closely by key decision makers in other markets.” 

Cxbladder offers an easy-to-use, non-invasive method of detection of bladder cancer for patients referred by the GP for evaluation of blood in the urine (haematuria) a key indicator of bladder cancer, through to management and monitoring for recurrence of the disease by the urologist. Cxbladder has been shown to significantly reduce the number of patients who will need a full urological evaluation, including many patients no longer requiring an invasive cystoscopy procedure (a thin tube inserted via the urethra to look inside the bladder).