BD Biosciences

BD Biosciences is a segment of Becton Dickinson, a medical technology company founded in 1897 by Maxwell Becton and Fairleigh Dickinson as Becton, Dickinson and Company. The founders had a vision to improve patient outcomes. BD Biosciences offers products for medical research and clinical laboratories. BD serves customers in life sciences, clinical research and clinicians involved in basic research, drug discovery and development, biopharmaceutical production and disease management. BD Biosciences made significant contributions to HIV research and diagnostics through their instruments for CD4 T cell counting.

The three worldwide business segments of BD are BD Medical, BD Diagnostics and BD Biosciences. BD Medical produces medical devices such as needles and syringes, and is the largest manufacturer of medical injection devices in the world. BD Diagnostics provides products for safe collection and transport of diagnostics specimens, instruments and reagents. BD Biosciences produces research and clinical tools related to the analysis of cells including antibodies and diagnostic assays. BD Diagnostics provides products in microbiology for pharmaceutical and medical devices manufacturers, food and beverage producers, personal care products manufacturers, and academic institutions. BD offers traditional and rapid microbiology solutions for bioburden, sterility, objectionable organisms or pathogens, identification and environmental monitoring.

BD Bioscience's clinical instruments include clinical cell analyzers such as flow cytometers and related devices and software for automated laboratory workflow and analysis. Research instruments include cell analyzers, sorters, software, systems for single cell RNA and protein expression analysis and automated research sample prep devices. BD Biosciences markets laboratory reagents and devices with applications in blood collection and cell therapy.

COVID-19 is a respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus strain called SARS-CoV-2, and was declared a global pandemic in March, 2020. BD received the European CE mark for its Multitest 6-Color RBNK Reagent with BD Trucount Tubes used to identify and enumerate T-cell subtypes in COVID-19 patients in October, 2020. In the previous 10 years the product has been used to assess immune function in HIV patients. Clinicians use the product to determine percentages and absolute counts of T, B, natural killer cells, and CD4 and CD8 subpopulations of T cells in peripheral blood. In COVID-19, the system can be used to assess how the immune system of a patient is responding to an infection with SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus.

BD also produces swabs for COVID-19 testing; these are COVID-19 rapid molecular diagnostic tests that run on the BD MAX System. BD also produces other products used in COVID-19 treatment such as infusion pumps, sets, and catheters.