Digene Corp. / DIGE

About Digene Corp.

1201 Clopper Rd., Gaithersburg, Md. 20878
www.digene.com | 301-944-7000 | Founded: 1987

Industry: Biotechnology | Category: Public Companies

The Washington region is home to many small biotechnology companies that dream of putting a multimillion-dollar product on the market some day. Digene is one of the few that has already achieved that goal. The company markets a test that can be used in conjunction with a Pap smear to tell a woman if she is harboring any of 13 strains of human papilloma virus, which can put women at risk of cervical cancer.
Medical societies are recommending that women undergoing Pap screening also get the Digene test, and the company sees a market that could hit eventually $500 million a year. Some analysts are skeptical that the market will be that big, but there's no question that Digene's revenue and profit are growing rapidly. That was particularly true in 2005, as the company started marketing the test aggressively on television in select cities.
Digene is likely to face competition from F. Hoffmann La-Roche Ltd. sometime in the next few years, and it remains to be seen how well the small Gaithersburg firm can compete against a pharmaceutical giant such as Roche.
Another uncertainty is the effect on Digene's business of forthcoming vaccines against human papilloma virus. Those vaccines are likely to be recommended mainly for girls on the verge of adolescence, and Digene thinks adult women will continue to need screening for years to come. So the company is betting that big-time advertising spending by the pharmaceutical companies developing the vaccines, Merck & Co. and GlaxoSmithKline PLC, will raise public awareness about human papilloma virus and increase demand for Digene's test. Moreover, the vaccines protect against only a few strains of the virus, so doctors may well decide to continue screening even women who have been vaccinated.
"The future looks bright," said Evan Jones, Digene's chairman and chief executive. "All trends are moving in the right direction."

President and CEO: Daryl J. Faulkner

2005 Financial Data

Revenues: $115,142,000 | Net Income: $-8,167,000
Asssets: $106,845,000 | Earnings Per Share: $-0.41
Total employees: 450 | Local employees: 300