BD (company)

BD was founded in 1897 by Maxwell W. Becton and Fairleigh S. Dickinson, two American businessmen who met on a sales trip. The same year the company made its first sale, a Luer-all-glass syringe that sold for $2.50. In 1898, BD acquired its first patent for a medical product. In 1899 the company introduced its first logo which was meant to symbolize guaranteed superior quality of the products provided by BD. In 1904, BD acquired the Philadelphia Surgical Company. This very first acquisition and other early acquisitions significantly expanded the company's manufacturing ability and product offering. Two years later, BD incorporated in the state of New Jersey and built a manufacturing facility in East Rutherford, the first in the U.S. created specifically for the production of thermometers, hypodermic needles, and syringes. In 1924, BD manufactured its first syringe designed specifically for insulin injection. One year later, BD introduced the BD Yale Luer-Lok Syringe, designed and patented by Fairleigh S. Dickinson, Sr. It provided a simple and secure method of attaching and removing the needle to and from the syringe. Today, Luer taper connectors are the standard for syringes in the U.S. In 1947 Joseph Kleiner developed the Evacutainer—a device used to draw blood by vacuum through a needle into a test tube. This product eventually evolved to become the BD Vacutainer Blood Collection system.[7]

In 1948, BD faced new leadership as Fairleigh S. Dickinson, Jr. and Henry P. Becton, sons of the founders, took over the company. Their 24-year tenure was a time of rapid development for BD. The company grew within the U.S. as well as internationally. In 1949, it opened its first manufacturing site outside of New Jersey in Columbus, Nebraska. In 1961, it established a manufacturing facility in Canaan, Connecticut. BD also soon expanded to Canada (1951), Mexico (1952), France (1955), and Brazil (1956). The tenure of Fairleigh S. Dickinson, Jr. and Henry P. Becton was also a time of significant product innovation. In 1950, BD's first sterile disposable product, a blood collection set, was developed and sold to the American Red Cross. In 1954, BD introduced the first completely disposable syringe made of glass: BD Hypak. This innovative product was used in a large-scale field test of the polio vaccine developed by Dr. Jonas Salk. One year later, BD entered the microbiology field through the acquisition of the Baltimore Biological Laboratory. In 1961, the company introduced its disposable BD Plastipak syringe. Under the new leadership the company also went public (1962) and appeared for the first time in the Fortune 500 list (1970).[7]

In 1973, BD added another U.S. facility — a research center in Durham, North Carolina in Research Triangle Park. The center was established to help the company meet United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requirements, research improved manufacturing and process methods, and develop future innovative technologies. In 1975, BD Pharmaceutical Systems Europe acquired an important patent for a prefilled syringe injecting heparin. In 1980, BD developed its first automated system for mycobacteria testing—the BD BACTEC 460TB System. The next year brought significant signs of the company's development as sales surpassed the $1 billion milestone and a new plant in Plymouth, England was constructed to serve the European markets. Five years later BD moved its corporate headquarters to Franklin Lakes, New Jersey (current HQ location.) Also in 1986, BD acquired Fabersanitas Industrial, a major Spanish syringe manufacturer as well as Deseret Medical, a vascular access devices manufacturer. The last three years of the 1980s also showed growth in Asia (manufacturing facilities in Singapore and Japan.) Furthermore, BD became the first company to introduce a safety-engineered syringe, the BD Safety-Lok (1988), and acquired the Beaver Blade Company, a manufacturer of high-quality surgical blades. The first half of the next decade was very important to BD's development. The company opened a central distribution center in Temse, Belgium (1992) and entered India and China (1995). BD also introduced a device that offered needle stick protection following blood-drawing procedures, the BD Vacutainer Safety-Lok Blood Collection Set.[7]

In 1999 BD announced its new corporate identity. Numerous independent brand names were replaced by a single name: BD. In addition, the company symbol that is used today was introduced. BD also named Edward J. Ludwig as the company's president. Ludwig was also named Chief Executive Officer (2000) and Chairman of the Board of Directors (2002). On February 9, 1999, BD announced the acquisition of Biometric Imaging, Inc. (BMI), a privately held company serving the transfusion medicine, infectious diseases, and oncology markets.[8] On December 20, 2000, BD signed an agreement to acquire Gentest Corporation, a privately held company serving the life sciences market in the areas of drug metabolism and toxicology testing of pharmaceutical candidates.[9] During that time, BD also got heavily involved in global health issues announcing a five-year maternal and neonatal tetanus worldwide elimination partnership with UNICEF (1999), launching the BD Safety Compliance Initiative (2000), and pledging $1 million contribution to the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative (2002.) In 2003 and 2004, BD introduced several innovative products: BD FACSAria Cell Sorter—the first entirely new instrument in the next-generation portfolio of flow cytometers (2003), BD Accuspray—a nasal drug delivery system for administering vaccines (2003), BD.id—a patient identification system designed to limit the potential for medical errors in specimen collection (2003), and the world's first "intelligent" insulin pump and glucose monitoring system, a wireless system consisting of a Medtronic MiniMed Paradigm 512 Insulin Pump and Paradigm Link Blood Glucose Monitor, co-developed with BD. In the beginning of the 21st century BD also invested in growing its business by acquiring several strategically important companies. In 2001, it acquired the Gentest Corporation, a leading in drug metabolism and toxicology testing company. In 2004, BD completed the acquisition of Atto Bioscience Acquired, a company specializing in optical instrumentation, software, and reagents for real-time analysis of interactions taking place in living cells. In 2005 BD entered the field of proteomics through its acquisition of FFE Weber GmbH, which specialized in the separation and fractionation of complex proteins. 2006 was also an important year to document BD's growth as the company acquired GeneOhm Sciences—a leader in the development of molecular diagnostic testing for the rapid detection of bacterial organisms and TriPath Imaging, a cancer diagnostics company.[7]

The BD Medical segment consists of four divisions or units, namely Diabetes Care, Medication Delivery Solutions, Medication Management Solutions, and Pharmaceutical Systems. The products of this segment include: needles and syringes, intravenous catheters, safety-engineered and auto-disable devices, prefillable drug delivery systems, prefilled IV flush syringes, insulin syringes and pen needles, regional anesthesia needles, and anesthesia trays. This segment primarily sells to: hospitals and clinics, physicians' office practices, consumers and retail pharmacies, governmental and nonprofit public health agencies, pharmaceutical companies, and health care workers.[11].

In certain places, BD Medical also offers consulting and analytics related services. BD Medical's Consulting services are primarily targeted at hospitals, healthcare systems and networks of healthcare providers.

Business units include Diabetes Care, Medication Delivery Solutions, Medication Management Solutions, and Pharmaceutical Systems.

Offerings include preanalytical solutions for sample management; immunology research, including flow cytometry and multiomics tools; microbiology and molecular diagnostics; lab automation and informatics; and differentiated reagents and assays.

Business units include Peripheral Intervention, Surgery, Urology and Critical Care

BD Biosciences designs, manufactures, and sells fluorescence-activated cell sorters and analyzers, monoclonal antibodies, and kits for cell analysis, reagent systems for life science research, cell imaging systems, laboratory products for tissue culture and fluid handling, and cell culture media supplements for biopharmaceutical manufacturing. BD Biosciences serves the following customers: research and clinical laboratories, academic and government institutions, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, hospitals, and blood banks.[11] The company's line of plastic conical screwtop test tubes, known as 'Falcon tubes', is popular and the term is sometimes used as a generic term for such tubes.[12][13][14]

In 2004, BD agreed to pay out $100 million to settle allegations from competitor Retractable Technologies that it had engaged in anti-competitive behavior to prevent the distribution of Retractable's syringes, which are designed to prevent needlestick injury.[15] The lawsuit touched off a series of legal conflicts between the companies. Retractable would accuse BD of patent infringement after BD released a retractable needle of its own. Later Retractable would claim BD was falsely advertising its own version retractable needs as being the “world’s sharpest needle”.[16] The debate between the two companies was partially the basis for the 2011 movie Puncture.

As of February 2010, BD was ranked 18th in the EPA Fortune 500 List of Green Power Purchasers.[17] BD was also listed among the top 100 companies in Newsweek's 2009 Green Rankings[18] ranking of the 500 largest American corporations based on environmental performance, policies, and reputation. BD placed third in the health care sector and 83rd overall.[19] In addition, BD has been a component of the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index and the Dow Jones Sustainability North America Index for the four and five consecutive years, respectively.[20][21]

In mid-2007, the firm's Discardit II series of syringes numbered 0607186 was withdrawn from hospitals and other medical services around Poland, about half a year after the discovery of remains of dark dust in some syringes, which were alleged to have been from this series.[22] The newspaper Dziennik Online claimed that other series such as 06022444, 0603266, and 0607297 were also suspected of being contaminated. BD recalled and tested the syringes in question, and revealed sterile particulates in 0.013 percent of the products.[23] Legal proceedings related to the incident started in December 2006.[22] According to an article published in Dziennik on Monday, 21 April 2008, the prosecutor's office in Lublin discontinued the inquiry, because the disposable syringes were not dangerous.

In February 2010 BD announced a voluntary product recall of certain lots of BD Q-Syte Luer Access Devices and BD Nexiva Closed IV Catheter Systems. BD stated that the use of the affected devices may cause an air embolism or leakage of blood and/or therapy, which may result in serious injury or death. The approximately 2.8 million BD Q-Syte and 2.9 million BD Nexiva units containing 5 million BD Q-Syte devices that were recalled were distributed in the United States, Asia, Canada, Europe, Mexico, the Middle East, South Africa, and South America. The recall was initiated on Oct. 28, 2009 after BD received complaints of problems due to air entry through a part of the device. BD stated that the cause of the problem was manufacturing deviation and claimed that it corrected the problem. BD announced that it notified customers about the recall by letter and has been working with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and worldwide health agencies to coordinate recall activities.[24][25]

In April 2016, the Occupational Safety and Health and Administration fined BD $112,700 for safety violations. They found repeat and serious violations of health and safety law that had resulted in two employees having partial finger amputations.[26][27]