Yahoo Finance BD's (BDX) Latest Collaboration to Boost Patient Outcome
Becton, Dickinson and Company BDX, popularly known as BD, recently announced a worldwide commercial collaboration agreement with Accelerate Diagnostics, Inc. Per the agreement terms, BD will offer Accelerate Diagnostics’ rapid testing solution for antibiotic resistance and susceptibility, offering results in a few hours. This is an improvement over some of the traditional laboratory methods, which may take one to two days to provide results.
It is worth mentioning that the recent tie-up enables BD to market and sell the Accelerate Pheno system and Accelerate Arc module and associated test kits via its global sales network in regions where the products have regulatory approval or registration. The collaboration also aims to advance the shared goal of both players to address the global threat of antimicrobial resistance.
The latest partnership is expected to complement BD's existing Clinical Microbiology portfolio, thereby solidifying its foothold in the global Integrated Diagnostic Solutions (IDS) business. Notably, the IDS business is a part of the broader Life Sciences arm.
Rationale Behind the Tie Up
Per BD’s management, rapid testing can aid in the faster determination of whether an antibiotic should be used for treatment, and, if so, which one. Management believes that this collaboration will enable it to help clinicians to quickly, efficiently and effectively treat patients. This, in turn, may lead to slowing the spread of antimicrobial resistance and reduction in healthcare costs.
Accelerate Diagnostics’ management feels that BD's large installed customer base of clinical microbiology systems will likely significantly increase its global commercial reach and provide ways to increase its market penetration with Pheno and Arc to reach more clinicians and patients.
Industry Prospects
Per a report by MarketsandMarkets, the global molecular diagnostics market is anticipated to reach $30.2 billion by 2027 from $23.2 billion in 2022 at a CAGR of 5.4%. Factors like the emergence of new viruses, technological advancements in molecular diagnostics and the growing awareness of early disease diagnosis are likely to drive the market.
Given the market potential, the latest collaboration is expected to significantly strengthen BD’s business worldwide.
Recent Developments in Life Sciences Arm
This month, BD entered into a collaboration with Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings LH or LabCorp. The tie-up is aimed at creating a framework to develop, manufacture, market and commercialize flow cytometry-based companion diagnostics intended to match patients best available treatments for cancer and other diseases.
Also, in August, BD reported its third-quarter fiscal 2022 results, wherein the company’s Biosciences business unit continued to record strong demand for reagents. This was driven by BD’s antibody and dye strategy and the continued adoption of its e-commerce platform. Strong instrument growth was driven by recent product launches and strategic procurement of critical components that enabled higher instrument placements.
Last month, BD and CerTest Biotec announced their newly developed molecular polymerase chain reaction test for the monkeypox virus had been made commercially available outside of the United States for use in research applications by laboratories. BD announced a partnership with CerTest with the aim of developing a molecular diagnostic test for the monkeypox virus in June.
Price Performance
The BD stock has gained 6.6% over the past year against the industry’s 6.3% fall and the S&P 500's 4.1% decline.
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Zacks Rank & Key Picks
Currently, BD carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).
A couple of better-ranked stocks in the broader medical space are AMN Healthcare Services, Inc. AMN and Patterson Companies, Inc. PDCO.
AMN Healthcare, sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) at present, has an estimated long-term growth rate of 3.2%. AMN’s earnings surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in all the trailing four quarters, the average beat being 15.7%.
You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
AMN Healthcare has gained 1.2% against the industry’s 28.8% fall in the past year.
Patterson Companies, carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present, has an estimated long-term growth rate of 7.9%. PDCO’s earnings surpassed estimates in all the trailing four quarters, the average beat being 16.5%.
Patterson Companies has gained 0.5% against the industry’s 6.3% fall over the past year.
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Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings (LH) : Free Stock Analysis Report
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