News & Events

Franklin Lakes, NJ (April 04, 2001) -- BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) (NYSE: BDX) today announced plans to introduce the BD Autoguard™ Pro shielded I.V. catheter, the first version of the market-leading BD Autoguard family of shielded I.V. catheters with a completely passive activation design.

The new product, the first developed in cooperation with The Med-Design Corporation (NASDAQ: MEDC), incorporates Med-Design technology licensed to BD. It is the latest addition to BD's extensive array of safety-engineered medical devices designed to help protect healthcare workers from accidental needlesticks.

The BD Autoguard Pro catheter employs a unique spring-based technology that automatically retracts the insertion needle into a shielded housing as it is withdrawn from the catheter. Product evaluations are being completed in hospitals around the U.S. and Canada, and the product is expected to be unveiled at the Intravenous Nurses Society meeting in Indianapolis in April.

"We are very excited about this new addition to our line of safety-engineered I.V. catheters," said Bill Marshall, BD Medical Systems' Vice President of Infusion Therapy and Technique Products. "With the BD Autoguard Pro, we will offer healthcare workers multiple options in shielded catheters to meet their clinical needs and personal preferences."

Gary Cohen, President, BD Medical Systems, emphasized that the close working relationship between BD and Med-Design was instrumental in bringing the new device to market in a timely manner.

"BD and Med-Design have worked very effectively together to develop a highly innovative, new safety-engineered device that can help to protect healthcare workers from injury and infection and help them deliver the highest quality patient care." According to Mr. Cohen, additional BD products using spring-based technology are in development and expected to be launched commercially in the future.

BD pioneered the development of safety-engineered "sharps" devices designed to protect healthcare workers against accidental sharps injuries, introducing its first safety-engineered product in 1989. The Company has invested over $500 million in safety-engineered products and services, including extensive clinical training and education programs, and the installation of completely new manufacturing equipment to meet the anticipated increased demand for these products following the passage of state and federal needle safety legislation.

BD offers the industry's broadest array of safety-engineered devices--over 200 catalog items in total--for injection, blood collection, infusion therapy, surgery, and sharps disposal. For more information about BD and its safety products and services go to www. bd.com/safety or call 1-888-383-0118.

BD is a medical technology company that manufactures and sells a broad range of supplies, devices and systems for use by healthcare professionals, medical research institutions, industry and the general public.