4 Apr 2012

(www.stuff.co.nz) Pacific Edge has appointed a chief executive to run its United States subsidiary in anticipation of strong sales of its diagnostic test kits for the detection of bladder cancer, and the hiring of extra staff to help sell the product.

The Dunedin-based biomedical company is in the process of establishing a laboratory in Pennsylvania to help it sell the bladder cancer diagnostic and prognostic product to clinicians around the United States.

New Zealand chief executive David Darling said the firm intended to have a handful of staff in the United States by mid-2012, ramping up to 20 in mid-2013 and 80-100 staff within three years.

"The US business will probably be the largest chunk of our go-to market strategy. It's always been the No1 market for us for two reasons: it is the largest healthcare market in the world and, secondly, it's very well advanced in that people in the United States really understand molecular diagnostics," he said.

The non-invasive test enables the early detection of bladder cancer from a small volume of urine. The product has recently been launched in Australia and New Zealand, with the company's Healthscope partner in Australia having a 40-strong sales force.

When asked about how soon revenues would flow from the United States, Darling said the buildout of the Pennsylvania laboratory should be completed in September and the site would go live in March 2013 after the anticipated completion of the regulatory process administered by the Clinical Laboratory Improvements Amendment.

The company this week announced the appointment of Jackie Walker as the chief executive of Pacific Edge Diagnostics USA. The laboratory she would help oversee had a planned capacity of up to 260,000 tests a year.

Most recently Walker was chief executive of OSspray, a UK-headquartered biotech start-up.

By Alan Wood

For the original version on stuff.co.nz visit: http://www.stuff.co.nz/business/industries/6856998/CEO-appointed-to-set-up-US-lab