- Release Date: 08/08/14 15:34
- Summary: DIRECTOR: PEB: Pacific Edge refreshes board of directors
- Price Sensitive: No
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PEB 08/08/2014 15:34 DIRECTOR REL: 1534 HRS Pacific Edge Limited DIRECTOR: PEB: Pacific Edge refreshes board of directors Pacific Edge refreshes board of directors Cancer diagnostic specialist, Pacific Edge, is looking to add further commercial and international expertise to its Board as it builds its sales and marketing platform in the United States and looks to expand its footprint in other markets. The Pacific Edge Board has been progressing a review of the skills and capabilities required to provide the most appropriate governance as the Company builds on its commercial platform. Over the last 12 months, Bryan Williams, who recently held the position of chairman of a NASDAQ listed therapeutic development company, has been appointed as an independent Director to the Pacific Edge Board. In addition, Bruce Nogales, who has significant skills and capabilities in medical technology commercialisation in the US, joined the board of the Company's US subsidiary, Pacific Edge Diagnostics USA Limited in 2013. A further step in the Board refresh process has been triggered following the recent resignation of Colin Dawson who has helped guide the Company through its formative and early stages of growth. Colin's resignation will take effect at the close of the annual shareholders meeting to be held in Dunedin on 21 August 2014. Chairman Chris Swann, said: "On behalf of the Board, I would like to thank Colin for the significant contribution he has made in bringing the Company to the point where it is today with its first cancer diagnostic system, Cxbladder, acclaimed by clinicians in the United States and other markets as leading technology in the accurate diagnosis of bladder cancer. "Pacific Edge is now successfully commercialising the Cxbladder technology in the world's largest health market, the US, and looking to further developments of the Cxbladder system. In line with this, the Board has identified a number of commercialisation skills and capabilities that would be of value to the Company. We are in discussions with several candidates and we hope to make an announcement on appointment of new directors in the near future." At the annual meeting shareholders will be invited to re-elect Chris Swann and David Band as Directors. Shareholders will also be asked to support the election of Chief Executive Officer David Darling as an Executive Director. Future appointments are likely to increase the size of the Board from six to eight members. The Company is seeking shareholder approval at the annual meeting to increase the maximum pool of fees for non-executive directors by $26,000 to $198,000. The annual meeting is scheduled to begin at 4pm on 21 August 2014 and will be held at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery. For more information contact: David Darling Chief Executive Officer Pacific Edge Ltd P: +64 (3) 479 5800 ABOUT PACIFIC EDGE Pacific Edge Limited (NZX: PEB) is a New Zealand based cancer diagnostic company specialising in the discovery and commercialisation 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 characterisation 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. 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. www.pacificedgedx.com 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 commercialised in the USA 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 multicentre, 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 tumours 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 tumours. 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, haematuria. People with haematuria 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 tumours. 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 tumours relative to later stage tumours. 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. End CA:00253648 For:PEB Type:DIRECTOR Time:2014-08-08 15:34:19
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