Becton Dickinson

Becton Dickinson is a medical technology company manufacturing and selling reagents, instrument systems, and medical devices that is headquartered in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey and was founded in 1897 by Fairleigh Dickinson and Maxwell Becton. 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. 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.

Becton Dickinson conducts its own business in almost 50 countries and has 45 thousand (2019) employees around the world. To date, BD is divided into three divisions: BD Medical, BD Diagnostics and BD Biosciences.

It is included in Fortune 500.

One of the co -founders of the company - Fairleigh S. Dickinson (1866–1948) - subsequently the founder of the University of Fairleigh Dickinson University and the Fairleigh Dickinson Foundation).

BD is the largest manufacturer of injection devices in the world. BD’s global manufacturing network produces billions of syringes and needles annually.

On March 17, 2020 Becton Dickinson submitted requests to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to approve their COVID-19 tests. Becton Dickinson partnered with the biotechnology company BioGX to develop the COVID-19 test, and seeks to use the tests in the United States under the Emergency Use Authorization act that allows for the expedited review of new tests under emergency situations like the COVID-19 pandemic. The company is also working on a faster test which they hope till produce test results for the COVID-19 virus in less than 10 minutes.

The CEO of Becton Dickinson, Tom Polen, made the following statement regarding his company's COVID-19 test:

I don’t think there will be tests that are any faster at this point than [two hours]. It’s a fully automated test so you snap in the test strip, put in the sample, close the door and press the button and the results come out in about two hours.

During the COVID-19 pandemic BD received orders from the US, Canada, the UK and across the world to supply needles and syringes, totaling 330 million as of July 2020, for administration of COVID-19 vaccines. Orders were set to be delivered by the end of 2020 in anticipation to be used for a vaccine expected to be approved late 2020 or early 2021. Expanded needle and syringe production at BD facilities in Nebraska are part of a public-private partnership with BARDA, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (US Health and Human Services) and the Department Department of Defense's Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense (JPEO-CBRND).

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

On January 6, 2015 Becton Dickinson held their initial public offering (IPO) under the ticker SWX:BDX.

On August 26, 2015 Becton Dickinson announced raising $15 million in post-ipo equity funding from Global health Investment Fund (GHIF).

On March 8, 2016 Becton Dickinson announced raising an undisclosed amount of private equity funding from Apax Partners that evaluated the company to be worth nearly $500 million. The private equity round sold 50.1% of of its respiratory solutions business to funds advised by Apax Partners to crate a joint venture operating as an independent company. A partner of Apax Partners, Steven Dyson, made the following statements about the deal:

We have been proactively targeting the industry for respiratory devices and have been impressed with the continued progress the company has made over the past few years. We are pleased to have the opportunity to work with the entire team in further developing Respiratory Solutions' position as a focused and leading global player. In order to take advantage of this opportunity, we are highly supportive of an investment program to further strengthen the business's existing platform, both organically and through acquisitions.

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.