Diagnostics beat implants in the race to market

Diagnostics companies have a sizeable advantage over developers of other forms of medical devices in that their products achieve approval in a much shorter time frame. An analysis of the number and speed of FDA approvals of innovative medical technologies over the last five years puts the test makers Roche and Qiagen way out in front; makers of complicated hospital equipment and heart implants, like Asahi Kasei and Abbott, lag behind.