Hologic chief executive officer (CEO) Jack Cumming said that economic recovery will be very slow as women are avoiding annual checkups to save money and hospitals are postponing their equipment purchases, Reuters reported. To cope with slowdown in sales, Hologic has been concentrating on expanding its product line through more acquisitions in fiscal 2010. The company is also working toward becoming the first company to offer tomosynthesis mammography system used for breast cancer detection.

The Hologic is ramping up sales of its Cervista molecular diagnostic test to detect the human papilloma virus (HPV), which received US FDA approval in March and gained approval in July for the Adiana permanent contraception system.

Cumming said Hologic, acquired Third Wave Technologies last year for $580 million, will continue to search for tuck-in acquisition candidates in fiscal 2010 and beyond whose products can be folded into its current distribution channels.

Yet the company’s most expected pipeline product is its tomosynthesis mammography system.

Hologic, which hopes to be the first company to offer tomosynthesis, a three-dimensional (3-D) technology for breast cancer detection, postponed in May its panel date for the US FDA to review the proposed product.

Cumming expects to make a series of FDA submissions on its tomosynthesis system beginning in 2010.