Global med tech company Becton, Dickinson (BDX) has announced additional pandemic orders for needles and syringes from the United States and Canada totaling 177 million injection devices.
The new US order for 140 million injection devices brings total U.S. orders from BD to 190 million devices. The new Canadian order for 37 million brings total Canadian orders from BD to 75 million devices. Across the world, BD has received total orders of 330 million needles and syringes from the U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom.
A majority of these orders will be delivered by the end of December 2020 in anticipation of a vaccine being approved late this year or early 2021.
BD adds that it does not expect these orders to impact its ability to fulfill existing customer requirements for needles and syringes, including the annual flu vaccination and childhood immunization campaigns.
In addition, on July 8, BD announced a $70 million investment to expand needle and syringe production at its Nebraska facilities as part of a partnership with the US’s Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) to support pandemic vaccination efforts.
The new capacity is expected to be online within 12 months and once completed, the federal government will have priority access to injection devices from these new manufacturing lines.
BD is the largest manufacturer of injection devices in the world, producing billions of syringes and needles annually through its global manufacturing network.
Shares in Becton, Dickinson are down 1.5% year-to-date, and analysts have a cautiously optimistic Moderate Buy consensus on the stock’s outlook. Meanwhile the average analyst price target of $277 indicates 4% upside potential lies ahead. (See BDX stock analysis on TipRanks).
Wells Fargo analyst Larry Biegelson recently reiterated his BDX buy rating, citing the company’s antigen tests for rapid Covid-19 detection. If BDX managed to sell 2 million tests/ week at an average price of $18, this would generate a further $470 million in revenue per quarter, calculates Biegelson. As this is not yet included in his model, it represents potential upside to estimates going forward, the analyst noted.
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