Pacific Edge Signs Cxbladder Bladder Agreement with National Provider Network MultiPlan in the United States

DUNEDIN, New Zealand and HERSHEY, Pa., May 28, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Pacific Edge announced today that it has entered into a contractual agreement with MultiPlan, Inc. for diagnostic laboratory testing. The agreement includes Pacific Edge's participation in the MultiPlan, PHCS and PHCS Savility Networks.

The agreement is the fourth signed with national provider networks by Pacific Edge since October 2013 and is another step in the company's commercial roll-out of Cxbladder in the United States, the world's largest healthcare market. The agreement with MultiPlan, in addition to the agreements with FedMed, America's Choice Provider Network, and Stratose makes Cxbladder available to a significant proportion of U.S. residents.

Pacific Edge Chief Executive Officer David Darling said, "National and regional provider networks are a key component in the commercial fabric ensuring that healthcare providers and technology suppliers are paid by healthcare payers for treatment provided to patients. Our participation in these networks will give a large number of Americans access to Cxbladder and its positive benefits as a quick, cost effective, non-invasive and highly accurate cancer detection test that is particularly appealing to U.S. healthcare professionals, patients, and insurers."

Pacific Edge's agreement with MultiPlan will give MultiPlan's participating providers and its clients' members access to Cxbladder. Approximately 900,000 providers participate in MultiPlan's provider networks and an estimated 68 million consumers have access to one or more of these networks.

Pacific Edge through its wholly owned subsidiary Pacific Edge Diagnostics USA (PED_USA) has launched Cxbladder in the United States and is processing samples collected using its proprietary Urine Sampling System at its custom built, CAP-accredited laboratory in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

"Our sales and marketing teams are now focused on the urologists and clinicians who are treating the largest number of bladder cancer patients to ensure they fully understand the value and benefits that Cxbladder provides to them and their patients," said Jackie Walker, Chief Executive Officer of PED_USA.

"In addition," she continued, "we are advancing relationships with large commercial payers and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), which provides healthcare insurance for 100 million people or nearly a third of the American population. Progress is being made with key customer segments including Integrated Healthcare Systems, the Veterans Administration (VA), and Large Urology Groups (LUGS), who are the point of contact for many patients presenting with hematuria (blood in the urine) which is an early indicator of possible bladder cancer."

More than one million Americans a year undergo medical investigation for potential bladder cancer at an estimated cost in excess of US$1 billion. Bladder cancer is one of the most expensive cancers to treat. The very high recurrence rate of this disease, requiring some patients to receive expensive monitoring for the rest of their lives, causes bladder cancer to have the highest total medical costs of any cancer from detection to death. In the U.S., the total medical cost approaches US$220,000 per patient.

ABOUT Cxbladder
Cxbladder is a proprietary, accurate molecular diagnostic test that enables the non-invasive detection of bladder and other urinary tract cancers from a small volume of urine. Cxbladder is commercialized in the United States as a Laboratory Developed Test (LDT).  It provides physicians and clinicians with a quick, cost effective and accurate measure of the presence of the cancer, and provides urologists with the opportunity to reduce their reliance on the need for invasive tests such as cystoscopy. The Cxbladder cancer detection test has been validated by a multicenter, international clinical study. Results published in the Journal of Urology (Sept 2012) show that Cxbladder out-performed all of the benchmark technologies in the clinical trial and detected nearly all of the tumors of concern to a urologist; At a performance of 82% sensitivity and 85% specificity the test sees 100% of T1, 100% of T2, 100% of T3, 100% of Tis and 100% of upper urinary tract cancers as well as greater than 95% of high grade tumors. http://www.cxbladder.com

ABOUT BLADDER CANCER
Globally, bladder cancer has the 9th highest incidence and the 4th highest incidence for men. One of the early symptoms of bladder cancer is the presence of blood in the urine, hematuria. People with hematuria often present to their general practitioner before being referred on to a urologist.

There are a number of 'at risk' occupations that have shown a much higher incidence of bladder cancer. Fire fighters and fire control officers have shown in a US study to have a twice the incidence of bladder cancer over non fire fighters. Smoking is a significant contributing factor (over 50% in males and 33% in females, and approximately one of every two new incidences of bladder cancer is linked to smoking). Exposure to certain industrial chemicals or carcinogens increases risks for some occupations e.g. hairdressers, painters, printers, fire fighters and metal workers and chemical engineers. Incidence increases with age so the older you are, the greater the potential for bladder cancer.

Bladder cancer has a very high recurrence rate of approximately 50%-70% with up to 30% of these recurring as later stage tumors. This is a higher recurrence than for skin cancer. However, bladder cancers are highly treatable, especially if detected in the early stages. If diagnosed early there is a much higher probability of survival for early stage tumors relative to later stage tumors. This makes timely and regular surveillance and monitoring of this cancer a key element of the clinical process and of the individual's annual healthcare plan.

ABOUT PACIFIC EDGE
Pacific Edge Limited (NZX: PEB) is a New Zealand-based cancer diagnostic company specialising in the discovery and commercialization of diagnostic and prognostic technology for the early detection and monitoring of cancer. Products in development and in clinical trials are accurate and simple-to-use genomic and proteomic tools for the earlier detection, improved characterization and better management of gastric, bladder, colorectal cancers and melanoma. The company has completed and released its first product for the detection of bladder cancer, Cxbladder, and is actively marketing the product to physicians and clinicians in New Zealand, Australia and the USA and soon in Spain. http://www.pacificedge.co.nz

ABOUT PACIFIC EDGE DIAGNOSTICS
Pacific Edge takes its exciting cancer detection tests to market through its wholly owned subsidiaries, Pacific Edge Diagnostics NZ Ltd and Pacific Edge Diagnostics USA Ltd, and selected commercial partners in Australia and Spain, Healthscope and Oryzon respectively. http://www.pacificedgedx.com

For more information contact:
David Darling
Chief Executive Officer
Pacific Edge Ltd
P: +64 (3) 479 5800

For Media:
Joan Kureczka
Kureczka/Martin Associates
+1 415 821 2413
[email protected]

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SOURCE Pacific Edge