What BD Selling Its Diagnostics Business Could Mean for Clinical Labs

Becton Dickinson’s (BD) announcement earlier this month that it will sell or spin off its in vitro diagnostics (IVD) and life science businesses is the latest in a multiyear series of changes to the IVD market.

With the pending move, BD says that it intends to focus more closely on the medical technology market.

While we don’t know yet what the final outcome will be of BD selling its diagnostics and life sciences interests, here are two important observations for clinical lab managers:

• If an existing IVD manufacturer steps in to acquire BD’s assets, it will mark another consolidation of this sector. That could shift the top 10 players in IVD, much like what happened when Quidel and Ortho Clinical Diagnostics merged in 2021 to create QuidelOrtho.
• Regardless of what party takes BD’s IVD and life sciences divisions, it means labs used to dealing with BD will potentially face on-boarding with a new vendor and possibly negotiating with new account managers. Those activities may not be welcome in time-strapped labs.

One factor for labs to watch closely in 2025 is the state of COVID-19 testing and how that affects BD’s spinoff. The upside for a suitor might be stronger if there is “the potential for greater-than-expected COVID-19 testing revenues as variants spread,” wrote senior analyst Robbie Marcus, who monitors BD for investment bank J.P. Morgan. Marcus provided a recent investor research report about BD to Today’s Clinical Lab.

BD selling its diagnostics division will shake up the top 10 IVD firms

In its announcement, BD noted that its IVD and life sciences division generated $3.4 billion in revenue in fiscal year 2024. The company pegged the overall market as worth more than $22 billion, which sounds like a lowball number compared to the $61 billion that the biggest publicly traded IVD firms earned in FY 2023.

Here are the top 10 IVD companies with estimated revenue for 2023, as compiled by Today’s Clinical Lab using earnings reports:

1. Roche Diagnostics—$16.4 billion
2. Abbott Laboratories—$10 billion (diagnostics division)
3. Danaher Corporation (including Cepheid, Beckman Coulter, and Leica Biosystems)—$9.6 billion (diagnostics division)
4. Siemens Healthineers—$4.8 billion (diagnostics division)
5. Thermo Fisher Scientific—$4.4 billion (specialty diagnostics division)
6. bioMérieux—$4 billion
7. Becton, Dickinson and Company—$3.6 billion (diagnostics division)
8. Sysmex—$3.1 billion 
9. QuidelOrtho—$3 billion
10. Qiagen—$2 billion

There may be discrepancies with BD’s reported earnings in 2023 and what exactly constitutes the spinoff’s earnings in 2024, but the general overview is accurate.

A new IVD player that clinical labs will get to know?

Looking at the above list, if a company not already in the top 10 acquires BD’s life sciences and IVD business, the suitor will automatically insert itself as a significant player in the industry. Clinical labs will quickly become familiar with this new firm.

And if an existing ranked company takes BD’s spinoff, it will move up the list rapidly unless No. 1 Roche is the buyer.

History proves this theory. When Quidel acquired Ortho Clinical in late 2021, the companies earned $1.7 billion and $2 billion respectively that year—barely enough for either to crack the top 10. Now the combined company is consistently on that list.

“We’re positive on the proposed separation of the [BD] diagnostics and bioscience businesses, but it’s too soon to judge the financial benefits until we get more color on the type of transaction Becton ultimately pursues,” Marcus wrote in his investor report.

BD selling its diagnostics business will take time, as the company said it expects to complete the sale or spinoff by 2026.