What is going on with BDX?
Becton, Dickinson and Company (BDX) today announced the formation of a public-private partnership with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to support the development of a range of COVID-19 combination diagnostic tests for core laboratories, hospitals, and at the point of care. BARDA is part of the U.S. Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response.
As part of the collaboration, BARDA will award BD an initial $24.7 million with options to extend to $40.3 million for development. Shares of BDX hovered around its opening price of $245.19 as of Thursday at 10:37 am.
What does this mean for Becton, Dickinson and Company?
As part of the collaboration, BDX will receive FDA clearance of five new combination tests including a rapid, antigen test that detects and distinguishes between SARS-CoV-2, Influenza A, and Influenza B at the point-of-care (BD Veritor Plus System Respiratory Panel), and a molecular PCR test that can distinguish between SARS-CoV-2, Influenza, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) for hospitals (BD MAX System Respiratory Panel).
"We know that COVID-19 will be with us for a long time, and we share BARDA's desire to help ensure the U.S. health care system is ready to diagnose and ultimately treat known and emerging respiratory viruses," said Dave Hickey, president of Life Sciences for BD.
"This collaboration will allow us to develop a comprehensive suite of FDA-cleared tests for use at all levels of the U.S. health care system to detect COVID-19, other respiratory pathogens and emerging coronaviruses in order to inform appropriate patient response and management."
A secondary goal of the testing partnership will be to detect emerging coronavirus strains that have not yet been identified among the populace.
BDX has a Long-Term Technical Rank of 64. Find out what this means to you and get the rest of the rankings on BDX!
Becton, Dickinson is the world's largest manufacturer and distributor of medical surgical products, such as needles, syringes, and sharps-disposal units. The company also manufactures diagnostic instruments and reagents, as well as flow cytometry and cell-imaging systems. BD Interventional (largely the former Bard business) accounts for 23% of revenue. International revenue accounts for 44% of the company's business.
