BD to acquire CareFusion for $12.2bn

BD and CareFusion formed an agreement under which BD will acquire CareFusion for $12.2 billion. The combination of the two companies’ complementary product portfolios will offer integrated medication management solutions and smart devices, from drug preparation in the pharmacy, to dispensing on the hospital floor, administration to the patient, and subsequent monitoring. The combination will improve the quality of patient care and reduce healthcare costs by addressing unmet needs in hospitals, hospital pharmacies and alternate sites of care to increase efficiencies, reduce medication administration errors and improve patient and healthcare worker safety. In addition, the company will have solid positions in patient safety to maximize outcomes in infection prevention, respiratory care, and acute care procedural effectiveness.

Upon closing, BD shareholders will own approximately 92 percent of the combined company and CareFusion shareholders will own approximately 8 percent.

Vincent A. Forlenza, BD’s chairman, chief executive officer and president, said, “BD’s acquisition of CareFusion allows us to align our highly complementary technologies and products to address unmet needs in the growing $20 billion global medication management industry, which leverages BD’s worldwide infrastructure. It accelerates BD’s transition from a product-focused company to a customer-centric provider of innovative healthcare solutions with leading scale across the medication management value chain and expanded solutions for patient safety.”

Kieran T. Gallahue, CareFusion chairman and chief executive officer, said, “As part of BD, we see new growth opportunities for our products in global markets, new value we can create for our customers and new opportunities for our employees as part of what will become one of the largest, global leaders in med-tech.”