A Final Rule Bites the Dust: Federal Court Rules FDA Lacks Authority to Regulate LDTs

The order is in, and the LDT Final Rule is out.

In May 2024, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (“FDA” or the “Agency”) published its Final Rule establishing its regulatory framework over laboratory developed tests (“LDTs”) as medical devices and, in effect, announced the end to decades of enforcement discretion by the Agency. The deadline to comply with the first phase of the Final Rule was set for May 6, 2025. On Monday, March 31, however, a federal judge in the U.S. Eastern District of Texas ordered that “FDA’s final rule exceeds its authority and is unlawful” and that “[t]herefore, consistent with controlling circuit precedent, the proper remedy is vacatur of the final rule and remand to FDA for further consideration in light of this opinion.”

Epstein Becker & Green’s Life Sciences Team is continuing to review and digest this order and its impact on the clinical lab industry, and we plan to release a more fulsome analysis in the coming days.

In the meantime, we draw stakeholders’ attention to a few key takeaways from the order—namely, the judge’s statement that (1) “the [federal Food, Drug, & Cosmetic Act]’s relevant text is unambiguous and cannot support FDA’s interpretation” and (2) “FDA’s asserted jurisdiction over laboratory-developed test services as ‘devices’ under the FDCA defies bedrock principles of statutory interpretation, common sense, and longstanding industry practice.”

These findings—along with other elements of the district court’s legal analysis—arguably leave little to no room for FDA to salvage its effort to regulate LDTs, absent either a successful appeal of the court’s order or congressional action.