Investors like Third Wave's good news

Madison, Wis. - There's nothing like a successful clinical trial to attract investors to a biotechnology stock.

Case in point: Madison's Third Wave Technologies, whose share price rose 25 percent the day following its announcement of a successful trial phase for its human papillomavirus (HPV) test.

Due to the lengthy regulatory proving ground, investments in biotech companies have a much longer payoff than similar commitments to information technology companies, which typically offer faster returns.

Third Wave, a Madison based molecular diagnostics company, is developing the test to detect HVP, a common sexually transmitted disease that has been linked to cervical cancer. The current treatment involves a painful HPV-related biopsy.

The World Health Organization estimates that as many as 75 percent of men and women in the United States will contract the virus at some point in their lives. When its HPV test hits the market, Third Wave will not own that space. Most notably, the assay technology developer QIAGEN already has a commercially available HPV test.

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