Pacific Edge announced it has substantially completed a commercial agreement with the Southern District Health Region (SDHR) for the use of its non-invasive Cxbladder genomic biomarker tests. The SDHR, which under the new Te Whatu Ora, Health New Zealand, has assumed administrative healthcare responsibility for 326,000 people across Otago and Southland, will deploy Cxbladder Triage into the primary care setting. Deploying into primary care follows the clinical practice model for hematuria evaluation (blood in the urine) established in the Canterbury health region.

This deployment model provides care to the greate number of patients and offers clinically actionable information at the earliest point in the patient care pathway. The agreement with SDHR will mean that 15 of New Zealand's 20 administrative health regions, which together cover more than 75% of the country's population, will now have access to the test via public healthcare. Under the primary care model, General Practitioners will be able to order Cxbladder Triage to help safely de-intensify clinical workup for patients presenting with hematuria.

In many cases this will reduce the need for secondary referral and an invasive cystoscopy.