Two months after the Dunedin-based firm Pacific Edge announced an agreement to use its bladder cancer testing technology in the Southern Health Region, the company has confirmed that the contract with Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand Southern has not been signed.
The company announced it had signed a deal in July for the use of its Cxbladder genomic biomarker test in the southern region.
This week, Pacific Edge confirmed that the deal was still pending.
In a brief statement, Chief Financial Officer Grant Gibson said the business case was with the HNZS management team and it would soon enter an approval cycle.
A company spokesperson later said the company had nothing more to add.
Two months ago, Brent Pownall, Pacific Edge’s commercial vice president for the Asia-Pacific region, said the company was excited to deploy Cxbladder in the southern region, home of the company and where Cxbladder was conceived and developed.
The agreement would mean that 15 of New Zealand’s 20 administrative health regions, which together cover more than 75% of the country’s population, will have access to the test through the public health system.
Cxbladder would be available through the Southern Community Laboratories sites and from primary care centers, he said.
In hard-to-reach rural areas of the region, patients could use Pacific Edge’s home sampling system, Mr Pownall said.
On the day of the announcement, the company’s stock price closed 4c at 80c.
However, that stock price failed to hold and traded at 49c in early August.
Yesterday, the company’s stock price closed at 48c.
HNZS was unable to respond to a request for comment.