On Apr. 27, 2020, Meridian Bioscience announced the launch of a novel enzyme master mix (Inhibitor Tolerant 1-step RT-qPCR Mix) that eliminates the need to use an RNA extraction kit prior to running the patient sample through a molecular assay. By eliminating this step, total assay cost is lower and processing times for COVID-19 samples can be reduced by as much as 30 minutes per test.