PEB Investor Update – March 2022
INVESTOR
MARCH 2022
U PDATE
IN THIS EDITION
•CEO’s update - A running start
•Hiring: Building out the team
•T
ests: Northern Health active
•Upgrade: New lab on track
•Conferences: Telling our story
•Subscribe to our customer
newsletter: The Cxbladder Bulletin
It is a great pleasure to be writing
to you for the first time as the
Chief Executive of Pacific Edge.
I officially stepped into the
role at Pacific Edge’s Dunedin
head office on 17 January - after
relocating home from the US and
two (let’s say challenging) weeks
in MIQ with my wife and our two
young children.
However, I have made a
running start. Shortly after my
appointment was announced at
the end of October last year, I
began consulting to Pacific Edge
from Boston in the US, where I had
just finished as Chief Commercial
Officer of Eurofins-Transplant
Genomics, a transplant diagnostics
company.
Since then, I have been working
with Pacific Edge’s teams across
the world to understand the finer
details of the business.
My goal has been to assess
the ‘current state’ of the company
and the strategies to move to
the ‘desired state’ of cementing
Cxbladder as the standard of care
in the diagnosis and management
of urothelial cancer.
TALENT AND COMMITMENT
It has been an intensely rewarding
period since arriving in Dunedin
and getting to know the strengths
of my team.
Consequently, I feel tremendous
excitement for Pacific Edge’s
future as we look to marry
technological leadership with
commercial leadership to advance
our Cxbladder diagnostic tests
into our two urothelial cancer
markets: haematuria evaluation
and surveillance for recurrence of
disease. I have also been impressed
by the familial spirit within the
company and the commitment to
making a meaningful difference in
cancer treatment and improving
the quality of life for millions of
patients.
“I feel tremendous
excitement for
Pacific Edge’s future”
Pacific Edge’s achievements,
particularly in the pivotal US
market, are significant.
The decision by US national
healthcare insurance administrator
CMS to accept and reimburse
patients for Cxbladder and
our collaboration with Kaiser
Permanente, the US’ largest
integrated healthcare provider,
have rightly grabbed the headlines.
However, these successes
are founded on the company’s
steady behind-the-scenes
progress building a wide network
of partnerships with key opinion
leaders (KOLs) in the urothelial
cancer community, including
independent urology groups,
academic centres, research
hospitals and other care providers.
They have also relied on our
development of a significant
repository of peer-reviewed clinical
evidence supporting the validation
and utility of our products.
While in the US I met with the
PacificEdge USA operations, sales,
marketing teams. I also spent time
with the healthcare providers
and the clinicians on the frontline
of urothelial cancer diagnosis,
the people and organisations
prescribing and paying for the
Cxbladder tests used every day.
Now, back home in New
Zealand, I am extending my
understanding of our operations in
this part of the world. A key focus
has been on how we have achieved
such widespread adoption and
support for Cxbladder here and the
lessons relevant to adoption of our
FROM THE
CHIEF EXECUTIVE
DR PETER MEINTJES
A RUNNING START
Pacific Edge Limited Investor Update | March 2022
2
DEAR SHAREHOLDERS,
technology in fledgling markets
such as Australia, Southeast Asia
and potentially further afield.
While it is still early days, this
work has identified for me some
clear early opportunities. For
instance, we are now looking
at ways to strengthen the
relationships between our product
development and clinical science
teams in New Zealand and our in-
market teams working alongside
healthcare providers and clinicians,
here and offshore.
Such cooperation can ensure
our research efforts are finely
attuned to specific in-market
needs and expectations. It can
also build a better understanding
of our operational capabilities and
therefore help the in-market teams
to deliver the best solutions.
Additionally, the treatment of
bladder cancer is unique in that
its diagnosed and managed by
urologists rather than specialist
oncologists and so we are
exploring a range of initiatives to
better engage with KOLs.
STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES
Pacific Edge continues to make
progress on the objectives we
identified at the time of the capital
raising last year: the acceleration
of growth into the US market;
further leveraging our first mover
advantage in the detection and
management of bladder cancer
and driving into new markets.
The extent of the recruitment
over the last three months (see
‘Hiring’ below) is evidence of the
strategy in action.
We are, as expected,
seeing continued
growth in test volumes
We are, as expected, seeing
continued growth in test volumes.
Pleasingly, these include tests for
the Melbourne-based Northern
Health (see ‘Test volumes’ below),
which last year committed to using
Cxbladder Monitor to help manage
patients undergoing surveillance
following treatment. We are also
making good progress upgrading
our Dunedin clinical laboratory,
which is on track to open in April.
(See our ‘Upgrade’ feature below).
I am looking forward to
updating shareholders on these
developments and our priorities
when we release our full year
results for the year to 31 March
2022 towards the end of May.
MARKET SENTIMENT
Finally, the sharp shift in global
share market sentiment since
the start of the year and the
retracement of the Pacific Edge
share price, no doubt will not have
escaped your notice.
While we are intensely focused
on the creation and recognition of
shareholder value, the Pacific Edge
executive team and board firmly
share my view that our efforts
must be directed towards what
we can control. That is: building
long-term sustainable value in a
rapidly growing business; making
prudent use of the capital you
have entrusted to us to drive that
growth and finally keeping you well
informed of the progress that we
are making.
I believe it is against these
broad objectives that you should
assess Pacific Edge’s progress, and
my leadership.
I am looking forward to working
with and meeting you in person in
the coming months.
Yours sincerely,
DR PETER MEINTJES
ABOUT DR PETER MEINTJES
Dr Peter Meintjes brings to Pacific Edge extensive
global diagnostics, biotechnology, and commercial
leadership expertise. He also has a track record for
commercialising new and disruptive biotechnologies
and driving rapid business growth across multiple
territories including the US and Europe.
Prior to joining Pacific Edge, Peter was Chief
Commercial Officer at the Massachusetts-based
Eurofins-Transplant Genomics, a transplant
diagnostics company. In that role he led the
commercialisation of the company’s suite of tests for
biomarkers of organ rejection, including the flagship
product TruGraf®, the only biomarker test for kidney
transplant recipients approved for reimbursement by
US national health insurance system administrator, the
Centres for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).
Prior to Eurofins-Transplant Genomics he spent
six years with the Budapest, Hungary-based Omixon,
a global molecular diagnostics company focussed
on pre-transplant organ and recipient compatibility
testing. With Omixon, he occupied senior roles in both
Hungary and the US, ending his tenure after three
years as Chief Executive Officer.
Peter started his business career in New Zealand
with the Auckland-based Biomatters, a bio-informatics
company, after completing undergraduate and
graduate study at Auckland University culminating in
him gaining a PhD in biological sciences in 2008.
He is aged 40 is married to Adrienn and has two
children Leo, 2 and Jack, 1.
Pacific Edge Limited Investor Update | March 2022
3
Northern Health, Pacific Edge’s
first major customer in Australia,
began sending samples to our
Dunedin laboratory in February
adding yet another stream of tests
to global volumes.
Northern Health provides
healthcare services to the rapidly
growing suburbs in Melbourne’s
outer north through four campuses
across the region, with over
5,700 professional staff. It agreed
to begin using Cxbladder in
December last year and we are
delighted that they have so swiftly
moved to sending commercial
samples.
Initially urologists at Northern
Health are using Cxbladder
Monitor to help manage patients
undergoing surveillance following
treatment of their bladder
cancer. The test is helping
urologists to identify those
patients that can safely forego
or defer a cystoscopy at their
next scheduled hospital visit. The
agreement with Northern Health
also envisages the organisation
using Cxbladder Triage.
Pacific Edge will provide an
update on group test volumes
when it releases its results for the
year to 31 March 2022 at the end of
May.
HIRING: BUILDING OUT THE TEAM
TESTS: NORTHERN HEALTH ACTIVE
Pacific Edge is building out its global team as it
drives t
o realise the significant potential for its
technology a
round the world.
The current recruitments are aimed at extending our
first mover advantage in the detection and
management of bladder cancer, continuing to grow in
the US market, and expand the Asia and Pacific
markets.
The majority of the
new employees and hires
currently in progress are in the pivotal US market
where we are recruiting customer-facing positions in
the sales team. These hires are targeted at
accelerating the progress made to date with
healthcare provider
s and urologists and driving
higher test throughput and reimbursement.
As we continue to grow our customer-facing
teams, we’re also increasing our support capability.
Key hires include the addition of a new Clinical Trials
Associate to accelerate and structure our research
programmes as we push for the inclusion of Cxbladder
tests in clinical guidelines. We have also bolstered our
Digital Marketing, Operations, Technology, and
Finance Support teams to ensure we can deliver on
the service standards our customers expect and assist
our Sales team as they make the case for Cxbladder
around the world.
Meanwhile, recognising the ongoing need to recruit
young talent into the company, and continuing our
well-established internship programme in partnership
with Callaghan Innovation and Chiasma, we took on
three interns from the University of Otago over the
summer.
We’re pleased to confirm that one of them, Finn
Dusterwald (pictured), a recent graduate with an
honours degree in microbiology, and a postgraduate
diploma in genetics, has now accepted a full time role
with the product development team.
Pacific Edge Limited Investor Update | March 2022
4
With the COVID-19 pandemic
waning, Pacific Edge’s sales teams
are looking forward to the return
of urology conferences around the
world to tell the Cxbladder story.
The conferences offer Pacific
Edge unmatched opportunities
to engage with the clinicians that
order our diagnostic tools to
assess and manage their patients’
care. However, over the last two
years most conferences were held
virtually or were cancelled. This
left the 30-strong Pacific Edge
sales team relying on less effective
approaches such as virtual or one-
on-one in-clinic meetings.
“Conferences are an
ideal forum to engage
with clinicians”
David Levison, Executive
Chairman of Pacific Edge’s
operations in the pivotal US
market, says conferences are
the ideal forum to engage with
clinicians on how Cxbladder can
help them deliver better urothelial
cancer care and management.
“Events such as these take
urologists away from the daily
pressures of their clinical practice.
The relaxed and informal setting
gives them opportunities to focus
on the latest developments in their
field and discuss them with their
colleagues and leading clinicians.
“It is in settings such as
these where they have time and
are most open to learn more
about new technologies such as
Cxbladder. Meanwhile, they offer
us an opportunity to see many
clinicians in a short period of
time,” Levison says.
Engaging with clinicians to
highlight the body of evidence
supporting the use of Cxbladder
is pivotal to changing clinical
practice and is a crucial element of
the Cxbladder commercialisation
strategy.
The other leg of the strategy is
engaging with healthcare funders
and providers to reimburse and
adopt the technology. However,
Levison says it is better to engage
with providers and funders, with
a few exceptions, away from the
crowds of urology conferences.
Pacific Edge’s 30-strong team
is planning to exhibit and attend
over 50 conferences, across the
US, Southeast Asia, and Australasia
this year.
The biggest event on the
calendar is the American
Urological Association annual
meeting, this year to be held in
New Orleans in the middle of
May. Thousands of urologists,
oncologists, researchers’
educators, and healthcare
professionals and companies from
around the world will be attending.
Levison says attendance at the
AUA meeting is essential, given its
significance. However, often it is
the focused meetings like the state
and regional AUA sessions where
the interactions with clinicians
can be more interactive. In these
smaller meetings competition
for clinicians’ time is less intense,
Levison says.
The upgrade to our Dunedin
clinical laboratory to future proof
our testing and research and
development capabilities is on
track for completion in April. The
new lab, located at our offices in
the Centre for Innovation, provides
space for the expected increase
in test volumes and allows for
the evolution we see in cancer
diagnostic technologies.
UPGRADE: NEW LAB ON TRACK
CONFERENCES: TELLING OUR STORY
Pacific Edge Limited Investor Update | March 2022
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If you’d like to hear more
about Cxbladder, including
product news, case studies,
clinical trial updates, and
connected publications,
we invite you to subscribe
to our 6-weekly Customer
Newsletter, the Cxbladder
Bulletin.
WOULD YOU LIKE TO HEAR MORE?
SUBSCRIBE TO THE CXBLADDER BULLETIN
VISIT US ONLINE:
www.pacificedgedx.com
www.cxbladder.com
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CONTACT US:
87 St David Street
PO Box 56,
Dunedin
New Zealand
T: +64 3 479 5800
E: investors@pacificedge.co.nz
Pacific Edge Limited Investor Update | March 2022
6
A
BOUT US
Pacific Edge is a cancer diagnostics company. We specialise in the discovery of diagnostic and prognostic
tests for the better detection and management of cancer. Our expertise extends from discovery to market,
and includes cancer genetics, bioinformatics, clinical path
ology, molecular oncology, technology
commercialisation a
nd marketing. Our products are based on proprietary genetic databases used to identify
diagnostic biomarkers for cancers. We specialise in building commercial cancer tests from these proprietary
biomarkers.
To subscribe, email us at
investors@pacificedge.co.nz
Data sourced from publicly available filings. Our datasets may not be complete. Automated analysis can produce errors. If you believe any data on this page is incorrect, please contact us at hello@nzxplorer.co.nz. For informational purposes only. Not investment advice.