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The story
Founded by Fairleigh S. Dickinson and Maxwell Becton in 1897, in East Rutherford.1
History
The company was founded in 1897 in New York City by Maxwell Becton and Fairleigh S. Dickinson. It later moved its headquarters to New Jersey.
In 2004, BD agreed to pay out US$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. 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 brand of retractable needle as the “world’s sharpest needle”.
In October 2014, the company agreed to acquire CareFusion for a price of US$12.2 billion in cash and stock.
In April 2017, Becton, Dickinson and Company announced it would acquire C. R. Bard. The transaction was completed later that year, and the company became a wholly-owned subsidiary of BD, rebranded as Bard.
In May 2021, BD announced that it would spin off its diabetes care business (https://investors.bd.com/news-events/press-releases/detail/85/bd-announces-completion-of-embecta-corp-spinoff). The spinoff was completed on April 1, 2022, to form Embecta Corporation. Embecta Corporation is a standalone public company focused on diabetes care. The name "embecta" represents the company's commitment to people living with diabetes and its corporate heritage, with the "em-" prefix evoking empathy for people living with diabetes and the empowerment of the new company and the "bect" imbibed from Becton. Becton, Dickinson and Company entered into an agreement with Embecta Corporation to be their sole supplier of cannulas through 2032. This agreement protects patents and intellectual properties of both companies ensuring the quality and integrity of Embecta Corporation's cannulas used in their products.
In July 2021, BD announced it would acquire surgical scaffold maker Tepha, after having acquired Velano Vascular earlier the same month.
In 2024, BD announced it would acquire Edwards Lifesciences' critical care unit for $4.2 billion.
2010 Q-Syte Luer and IV Catheter partial recall
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.
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2021 IV Giving Sets
In March 2021 BD announced a recall of infusion sets for CC, GP, VP, GW/GW800, SE, and IVAC 590 Alaris Pumps and gravity infusion sets and connectors following the news that a supplier falsified sterilisation documents going back ten years.
From Wikipedia’s article on BD (company), shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.8