The U.S. FDA recently convened an advisory hearing to discuss whether three in vitro diagnostics should be reclassified from class III to class II, including tests for the pathogens responsible for Hepatitis B and tuberculosis. The panel agreed that all three of the test types should be reshuffled to the lower-risk class II category, suggesting that test developers now have an opportunity to jump into a market with lower-cost tests that won’t need expensive and drawn-out clinical studies to obtain the FDA’s seal of approval.

Although there has been huge progress in treatment of cystic fibrosis over the last decade, with Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. becoming the first to address the underlying cause of the disease with its Kalydeco (ivacaftor), approved in 2012, there are still many patients who aren’t eligible for treatment.