Rate My Professor David Darling

David Darling served as Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Pacific Edge Limited, a Dunedin-based biotechnology company with deep roots in the University of Otago. Founded in 2001 from research conducted at the university, Pacific Edge specializes in the development and commercialization of non-invasive diagnostic tests for bladder cancer, notably the Cxbladder suite of products. Under Darling's leadership for over two decades until 2022, the company achieved significant milestones, including winning the supreme award at the 2013 New Zealand Innovators Awards and being named the top bioscience company by the New Zealand Biotech Association in 2014. He led the international expansion, particularly into the United States market, establishing subsidiaries like Pacific Edge Diagnostics USA and securing contracts with major healthcare networks such as FedMed, ACPN, Stratose, and MultiPlan. Darling emphasized the company's commitment to science and intellectual property, positioning Cxbladder as a highly accurate, gene-based urine test that reduces the need for invasive cystoscopies.

Darling brought over 30 years of experience in life sciences and biotechnology to his role, having previously held governance, executive, and senior management positions at Fletcher Challenge. He oversaw key achievements such as the inclusion of Cxbladder in the US National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines, commercial approval from Kaiser Permanente, revenue growth to $4.4 million in FY20, and the publication of peer-reviewed papers demonstrating the test's superior clinical utility. Notable publications to which he contributed include "Performance Characteristics of a Multigene Urine Biomarker Test for Urothelial Carcinoma: A Prospective Study" (The Journal of Urology, 2017), "Clinical comparison of noninvasive urine tests for ruling out recurrent urothelial carcinoma" (Urologic Oncology: Seminars and Original Investigations, 2017), and "Clinical utility of a non-invasive urine test for risk assessing patients with low-grade haematuria" (BMC Urology, 2018). Pacific Edge maintains a close relationship with the University of Otago through a legacy equity agreement and ongoing collaboration, with research facilities located nearby in Dunedin.