The need for new tests exists, yes. The reality is that most new tests are not developed by industry, but tend to originate in the research community. Whether new and additional tests are needed or will be worthwhile was not my issue. I was simply looking at the rate of introduction of new tests in various decades since the seventies and making the observation that the rate of introduction of new tests has slowed very dramatically. Furthermore, given the added requirements of a new test to demonstrate safety and efficacy, the economics of developing new tests within the diagnostics industry are not terribly favorable which is one reason that most new tests or analytes come out of academia rather than industry, and in particular the large companies. Recent trends suggest that any new tests that do come from the industrial community are far more likely to come from small, start up types of companies than the big guys like Siemens, Abbott, Danaher, or Roche.
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