Others point out that most women develop cervical cancer because they don't get tested regularly, not because the Pap smear doesn't work. There is a system that has been used now for 50 years that will be difficult to replace. Still, Digene's test is quickly gaining acceptance among health authorities and doctors worldwide. Over the past two years, several large health-insurance companies, including Kaiser Permanente, Aetna U.S. Healthcare and Blue Cross Blue Shield, have added Digene's test to their coverage. And some top diagnostic laboratories have started to automatically perform the test when Pap smear results are not conclusive.
Digene executives believe the company is at the beginning of a long climb in revenue growth.
Most doctors still order additional Pap smears for borderline cases. All this helps explain why investors are bullish on Digene and have fueled the rapid rise of its stock. Digene is now focused on the U.S. market for borderline Pap smears, but the company has bigger ambitions. It is conducting several human tests to gather the data it needs to get the test approved as a first-line screening procedure for cervical cancer. Digene and the medical community are awaiting trial results from a pivotal large-scale human tests, sponsored by the National Cancer Institute, that compares the accuracy of Digene's test with the Pap test.