Digene Corporation was a

molecular diagnostics Molecular diagnostics is a collection of techniques used to analyze biological markers in the genome and proteome, and how their cells express their genes as proteins, applying molecular biology to medical testing. In medicine the technique is ...

company with company headquarters in

Gaithersburg, Maryland Gaithersburg ( ), officially the City of Gaithersburg, is a city in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. At the time of the 2020 U.S. Census, Gaithersburg had a population of 69,657, making it the ninth-largest location in the state. Gai ...

, U.S. Floyd Taub, M.D, founded the company in 1984 and it was incorporated in 1985. In 1988, the first diagnostic test for

human papillomavirus Human papillomavirus infection (HPV infection) is caused by a DNA virus from the ''Papillomaviridae'' family. Many HPV infections cause no symptoms and 90% resolve spontaneously within two years. In some cases, an HPV infection persists and res ...

gained

FDA The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a federal agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the control and supervision of food ...

approval; the test was ViraPap, developed by Life Technologies, which had been formed by the merger of GIBCO and Bethesda Research Laboratories in 1983. Clinical uptake was slow, and Life sold the test and associated intellectual property to Digene in 1990. It became Digene's most important product line. In 2007,

Qiagen QIAGEN N.V., the global corporate headquarter of the QIAGEN group, is located in Venlo, The Netherlands. Furthermore, European, American, and Asia regional headquarters are located in respectively Hilden, Germany, Maryland United States, and Sh ...

bought the company for US$1.6 billion.

References

{{Reflist Biotechnology companies of the United States Defunct companies based in Maryland Companies based in Gaithersburg, Maryland Biotechnology companies established in 1984 Biotechnology companies disestablished in 2007 1984 establishments in Maryland 2007 disestablishments in Maryland 2007 mergers and acquisitions