By Stephen Wright

Pacific Edge Ltd. shares have slumped 40% on information that its bladder-cancer take a look at may very well be excluded from Medicare reimbursement by one of many U.S. health-insurance program’s directors.

The New Zealand firm on Monday mentioned {that a} vital quantity of its income is in danger. Nonetheless, it additionally mentioned trade specialists and its authorized advisers imagine it’s unlikely that the adjustments proposed by Medicare contractor Novitas will “survive the continuing assessment course of of their present type.”
Pacific Edge shares had been down 40% at NZ$0.47 in midafternoon buying and selling on the NZX after earlier falling by almost half.
Novitas proposes to make use of three medical databases–none of which embody Pacific Edge’s test–for figuring out if a genomic take a look at needs to be reimbursed by Medicare. Pacific Edge mentioned it’s making a complete submission to Novitas’s assessment.
Write to Stephen Wright at stephen.wright@wsj.com