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Bard

Logo: C. R. Bard, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons3

Pharmaceutical company

C. R. Bard, Inc., headquartered in Murray Hill, New Jersey, USA, was a developer, manufacturer, and marketer of medical technologies in the vascular medicine, urology, oncology, and surgical specialty fields. C. R. Bard marketed its products and services worldwide to hospitals, individual health care professionals, extended care facilities, and alternate site facilities.2 From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0

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Last updated Oct 16, 2026.

Overview

1907Founded1

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C. R. Bard, Inc., headquartered in Murray Hill, New Jersey, USA, was a developer, manufacturer, and marketer of medical technologies in the vascular medicine, urology, oncology, and surgical specialty fields. C. R. Bard marketed its products and services worldwide to hospitals, individual health care professionals, extended care facilities, and alternate site facilities. An S&P 500 company with approximately 14,000 employees in 2015, Bard is perhaps best known for having introduced the Foley catheter in 1934.2

How it started

History

C. R. Bard, Inc. was founded in New York City by Charles R. Bard in 1907. Bard's first business involved importing Gomenol, which was used to treat urinary discomfort. The company formally incorporated in 1923, and three years later, in 1926, Charles R. Bard sold the company to John F. Willits and Edson L. Outwin for $18,000. Under Willits and Outwins, the company expanded into the catheter business, introducing the Foley catheter in 1934 and the America Woven Catheter in 1940.

In 1948, C. R. Bard's annual sales topped $1 million for the first time, and the company moved its headquarters from New York City to Summit, New Jersey. In 1954, a Bard scientist, Dr. Michael DeBakey (1908–2008), developed the first arterial prosthesis. Three years later the company began selling Foley catheters that came in sterile packaging for the first time ever. Bard continued to innovate in the world of catheters, rolling out the bipolar temporary pacing catheter in 1958 and the first latex balloon catheter in 1960. In 1961, Bard expanded beyond catheters, and began manufacturing products related to cardiology, radiology, and anesthesiology.

C. R. Bard went public in 1963 and was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1968. Over time, the company introduced a variety of new health care products, and its net sales first exceeded $1 billion in 1994. Around 2012, Bard acquired the company Lutonix.

On April 23, 2017, it was announced that C. R. Bard would be bought by BD for $24 billion. On December 29, 2017, the acquisition was completed.

From Wikipedia’s article on Bard, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.2

Timeline

  1. 1907Founded Founded1

Sources

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