Becton Dickinson to Spin Out Biosciences and Diagnostic Solutions Business
Posted on 06 Feb 2025
Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD, Franklin Lakes, NJ, USA) has announced that its board of directors has unanimously authorized the management to pursue a plan to separate BD's Biosciences and Diagnostic Solutions business from the rest of the company to enhance strategic focus and growth-oriented investments and capital allocation for both BD and the separated business and enhance value creation for shareholders.
The separation decision was the result of a comprehensive business portfolio evaluation launched by BD in early 2024. The company believes the separation is expected to unlock value on two fronts: The creation of a New BD that is recognized as a focused, innovative and growth-oriented medical technology leader with four attractive segments aligned to both essential needs and higher-growth trends in health care, and the Biosciences and Diagnostic Solutions business that is expected to become a differentiated leader in Life Sciences Tools and Diagnostics. Following the separation, New BD will be a pure-play medical technology company with leading positions in large and growing end-markets. With this profile, New BD expects to drive concentrated investments in high-impact R&D and disciplined capital allocation including growth accretive M&A, which positions the company to deliver differentiated and durable growth rates in MedTech. New BD will have strong, leading positions across four new operating segments in attractive end-markets with significant headroom for growth.
The first operating segment is Medical Essentials, which includes BD's Medication Delivery Solutions and Specimen Management businesses that manufacture tens of billions of devices each year and represent the backbone of health care delivery through products such as IV catheters, PICCS, flush and other essential vascular access and management solutions, blood collection solutions, syringes and advanced needle technologies, resulting in durable, recurring revenue and strong cash generation. The second operating segment is Connected Care, which includes BD's Medication Management Solutions and Advanced Patient Monitoring businesses with millions of smart devices that use automation, artificial intelligence and analytics to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of patient care and creates compelling growth potential in new areas of health care such as pharmacy automation.
The third operating segment, BioPharma Systems will bring a new name and increased focus to the Pharmaceuticals Systems business unit, which is the global leader in biologic drug delivery, developing and manufacturing drug delivery devices for the pharmaceutical industry. BioPharma Systems is uniquely positioned to enable the transition to more biologics, including GLP-1 treatments, and capitalize on the large growth potential of pharmaceutical industry trends, as more drug launches rely on patient self-injection. The fourth operating segment is Interventional, which includes BD's Urology & Critical Care, Peripheral Intervention and Surgery businesses that advance the treatment of high-burden chronic conditions such as urinary incontinence, peripheral vascular disease, cancer and hernias – all of which are high-growth categories with attractive margin profiles and meaningful headroom for new innovation.
The New BD will have a sharper focus on health care provider and patient end-markets. The Biosciences and Diagnostic Solutions business is also expected to benefit from enhanced focus and investments as a pure-play Life Sciences Tools and Diagnostics leader. Biosciences is a leader in immunology and cancer research solutions and related clinical diagnostics, including flow cytometry instruments and reagents, and has innovative single-cell multiomics tools. Diagnostic Solutions is a leader in microbiology and infectious disease diagnostics, including molecular diagnostics, cervical cancer screening, microbiology automation and point-of-care offerings. Both businesses have strong leadership teams with unparalleled commercial, engineering and R&D expertise, and are dedicated to bringing the next generation of high-quality innovations to researchers, clinicians and patients. The company believes that independent of BD, the business will be well-positioned to better meet the needs of research and laboratory customers and accelerate growth through more focused investment and capital allocation within the life sciences sector. As the company pursues this transaction, BD will remain focused on execution and continue to operate the Biosciences and Diagnostic Solutions business and the other BD businesses in alignment with its BD 2025 strategy, including continued investments in commercial growth, innovation, M&A and other initiatives that are part of the company's multi-year strategic operating plans.
"Our BD 2025 strategy has transformed the company into a faster-growing, more profitable organization positioned at the forefront of long-term growth trends in health care, and we believe today's announcement is an exciting next step in unlocking significant potential value for all our stakeholders," said Tom Polen, chairman, CEO and president of BD. "We believe the separation will position New BD as a differentiated MedTech leader and enable optimized investment to accelerate our innovation pipeline and ongoing margin enhancement through BD Excellence to further fund growth. We believe Biosciences and Diagnostic Solutions is expected to deliver substantial value as a pure-play leader in life sciences and will be well-positioned to execute on its unique and compelling solutions and growth opportunities. This transaction is designed to position both businesses to thrive in our respective sectors and deliver value for shareholders."
