BD CEO Forlenza: We’re not selling surgical instruments biz

Rumors that Becton Dickinson (NYSE:BDX) is mulling the sale of its V. Mueller surgical instruments after closing the $12.2 billion acquisition of CareFusion are not true, chairman & CEO Vincent Forlenza said today.

“We are not selling our surgical business. On the other hand, we are doing a market check on our respiratory business, but we have not made a decision on whether to sell it or not. We are evaluating on what to do with the respiratory business,” Forlenza told India’s LiveMint blog.

Reuters, citing “people familiar with the matter,” reported in May that BD might divest the V. Mueller business as it drills down on core businesses. Franklin Lakes, N.J.-based BD hired investment bank JPMorgan Chase & Co. to assist with a potential sale, which could fetch around $500 million, according to the wire service.

Although the main focus is on expanding the medication management business, Forlenza said, BD is also getting into genomics, having acquired Ireland’s GenCEll Biosystems for an undisclosed amount in October 2014.

“This provides an excellent platform to get into the genomics space,” he told the Indian website. “We want to build a capability that makes genomics a routine and easier-to-perform model. We have world-leading capabilities in the sector to enable researchers to acquire the exact type of cell they want to analyze. In addition to this, we have made something called flow cytometers, which are used to identify certain cells. We can search 10,000 blood cells a second. What it does is the researcher will have a pure sample to analyze.”

Forlenza said another focus is boosting CareFusions footprint outside the U.S., which accounts for just 25% of total revenues, Forlenza said.

“What we are doing is building a global leader in medication management,” he said “We are in complementary parts of medication management and we are building an end-to-end solution in the sector for acute care customers. The plan is to help our customers optimize medication management within their organizations. Medication errors are one of the leading causes of death, fourth in the US, and it’s similar in the developed world also. It will be a significant problem in emerging markets as well. We want to make the process more efficient and more safe.”

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