Pacific Edge Reports Commercial Progress and Revenue Growth

Pacific Edge Reports Commercial Progress and Revenue Growth

Interim Results Announcement for the six months to 30 September 2014

Pacific Edge Limited (NZX: PEB) has today announced its interim results for the six months to 30 September 2014, with strong revenue growth reflecting the Company’s positive commercial progress following the launch of its revolutionary bladder cancer detection test, Cxbladder, into the US market in mid-2013.

The results are based on unaudited management accounts and are in line with market expectations.

Revenues for the six month period were $1.598 million, a 773% increase on the previous year and primarily driven by growing sales of Cxbladder Detect in the US and New Zealand markets, as well as Australia.

“This step up for the Company is in line with our forecasts. It clearly marks our successful transition to an international commercial organisation”, said Pacific Edge CEO, David Darling.

The Company is continuing to invest into four main areas as planned: People, Intellectual Property, Market Expansion and Product Development. These areas are critical to securing the long-term future of the company. Expenditure on these areas forms the majority of the $4.9 million loss for the six-month period, which is lower than the forecast loss and in line with the previous first half year.

The Company retains sufficient funding to support its current growth strategy, with $14.7 million in cash at the end of the six-month period as well as funding from technology grants.

Management Commentary

The first six months has been a positive and productive time for Pacific Edge and we have made good progress on our operating objectives for FY15.

For the first six months of this year, our sales and marketing teams in each of our markets have been focused on capturing new customers and transitioning them onto the use of the Cxbladder test via User Programmes. Our User Programmes encourage clinicians to trial and evaluate our products in their own clinical settings and are a highly effective pathway to market for us. They are a key part of the adoption cycle for our urologist customers and we are actively growing our User Programmes in New Zealand, Australia and the US.

In August 2014, Pacific Edge signed a User Programme agreement with Southern California Permanente Medical Group (SCPMG), which employs more than 5,500 physicians. They will use our Cxbladder test and evaluate its performance in their specific clinical settings. This User Program for Kaiser Permanente is expected to enroll approximately 2000 patients presenting with haematuria (blood in the urine) from the 3.7 million members of Kaiser Permanente Southern California.

Our sales and marketing teams work with new customers to understand their specific needs and applications for Cxbladder. Investment has been made into the expansion of our sales and marketing personnel in the US and over the first half-year, we have hired the balance of the sales team as planned for this year, growing the team to 12 people. This has allowed Pacific Edge to expand its geographical reach within the US, targeting large urology groups and urologists in high density, large urban centres on a national basis.

National and Regional Provider Networks in the US are a key component of the commercial healthcare system and facilitate access to products and services for patients of their clients, who are private insurers, large employers and third party administrators. Since October 2013, we have signed four agreements with large NPNs. At the start of this six-month period, we completed the agreement with Multiplan, one of the largest. Together, these agreements give millions of Americans access to our Cxbladder technology.

We believe in making it easy for patients and clinicians to access our products. In New Zealand, we have broken new ground in the medical industry with the approval under New Zealand’s Medicines Act for an e-commerce platform for urologists, physicians and patients alike to order Cxbladder.

Outlook

Our Cxbladder technology offers patients a simple, non-invasive and accurate urine-based test for the detection and management of bladder cancer. Cxbladder Detect, the company’s first product, can be used on patients to accurately detect the presence of bladder cancer, providing significant benefits to clinicians and physicians and improved patient outcomes and satisfaction.

The number of people presenting globally with haematuria (blood in their urine - one of the early symptoms of bladder cancer) is significant and increasing. A proportion of these people will have bladder cancer and current clinical guidelines require that all people presenting with haematuria receive a clinical evaluation for bladder cancer.

Bladder cancer has the ninth highest incidence in the world and the fourth highest incidence in men. We have the opportunity to provide millions of patients access to our Cxbladder technology and our focus is on developing a range of products to meet specific needs for the detection and management of bladder cancer.

We now have an established commercial footprint in New Zealand, Australia and the US and are currently identifying other market opportunities, including in South East Asia, which has large and medically sophisticated populations.

We are progressing well with our FY15 commercial and development activities and are on track to achieve our goals for the year as we look to grow our global presence with a Cxbladder family of products for healthcare professionals in our targeted markets.

ENDS

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