Q1 2026 Becton Dickinson & Co Earnings Call

February 9, 2026

Speaker #1: At the request of BD, today’s call is available for replay on BD’s Investor Relations website at investors.bd.com or by phone at 800-753-5212 for domestic calls and area code 1-402-220-2673 for international calls.

Speaker #1: For today's call, it is being recorded. All parties have been placed in a listen-only mode until the question and answer session.

Speaker #1: I will now turn the call over to Sean Bevec, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Speaker #2: Good morning, and welcome to BD's earnings call. I'm Sean Bevec, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Thank you for joining us. This call is being made available via audio webcast at bd.com.

Shawn Bevec: Good morning and welcome to BD's earnings call. I'm Sean Bevick, Senior Vice President of Investor Relations. Thank you for joining us. This call is being made available via audio webcast at bd.com. Earlier this morning, BD released its results for the first quarter of fiscal 2026. The press release and presentation can be accessed on the IR website at investors.bd.com. Leading today's call are Tom Polen, BD's Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and President, and Victor Roque, Senior Vice President and Interim Chief Financial Officer. Before we get started, I want to remind you that we will be making forward-looking statements. You can read the disclaimer in our earnings release and the disclosures in our SEC filings on our investor relations website. Unless otherwise specified, all comparisons will be made on a year-on-year basis versus the relevant fiscal period.

Speaker #2: Earlier this morning, BEDI released its results for the first quarter of fiscal 2026. The press release and presentation can be accessed on the IR website at investors.bd.com.

Speaker #2: Leading today's call are Tom Polen, BD's Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President, and Victor Roque, Senior Vice President and Interim Chief Financial Officer. Before we get started, I want to remind you that we will be making forward-looking statements.

Q1 2026 Becton Dickinson & Co Earnings Call

Request a DemoDemo

BDX

Becton Dickinson

Earnings

Q1 2026 Becton Dickinson & Co Earnings Call

BDX

Monday, February 9th, 2026 at 1:00 PM

Transcript

No Transcript Available

No transcript data is available for this event yet. Transcripts typically become available shortly after an earnings call ends.

Want AI-powered analysis? Try AllMind AI →

Tom Polen: Thank you, Sean, and good morning, everyone. Before we get started, I'd like to take a moment to welcome Sean to BD. We're very excited to have Sean join our team, and I look forward to partnering with him as we continue to communicate our strategy, performance, and growth opportunities. Turning to our Q1 performance, we delivered stronger-than-expected results, which reflect our disciplined execution, including accelerated commercial initiatives and strength in our key growth platforms. Revenues of $5.3 billion increased 0.4%. New BD grew 2.5% with broad-based growth across the markets where we've been doubling down on investments. This includes double-digit growth in biologic drug delivery, PureWick, advanced tissue regeneration, and pharmacy automation, and high single-digit growth in APM.

Tom Polen: We delivered mid-single-digit growth across 90% of new BD's portfolio, partially offset by 10% of our portfolio, Alaris, vaccines, and China undergoing challenging market dynamics that were in line with our expectations. We delivered adjusted gross margin of 53.4% and adjusted EPS of $2.91, both of which were also ahead of our expectations on the strength of revenue performance and operational execution. Later this morning, we expect to close the combination of our life sciences business with Waters via Reverse Morris Trust transaction. This is a significant milestone as we fully pivot to new BD and the next chapter of the company's growth. I want to thank both the BD and Waters team whose exceptional hard work and transaction experience are enabling us to close nearly two months ahead of schedule.

Tom Polen: We believe this transaction unlocks significant value for our shareholders through both participation in the new Waters entity and value creation in the new BD. As part of the transaction, we will receive a $4 billion cash distribution. I'm pleased to announce $2 billion will be deployed towards share repurchases through an ASR, and $2 billion will be deployed towards debt paydown. Both are expected to be executed in the near term, subject to market conditions. This is in line with our enhanced capital allocation strategy, which prioritizes share repurchases, a reliable and growing dividend, and focused tuck-in M&A in targeted high-growth markets, all designed to steadily increase return on invested capital. With the completion of our life sciences transaction, BD enters this next chapter as a far more focused, pure-play medtech company.

Tom Polen: This transformation builds on several years of deliberate portfolio shaping, including divesting three substantial non-core assets and the more than 20 strategic tuck-ins we've completed to strengthen our presence in some of the most attractive areas of healthcare. We recognized early on how the world of healthcare is changing rapidly. Providers everywhere are seeking partners who not only deliver high-quality products but who can help them transform care pathways, improve outcomes, and reduce cost. As we've previously discussed, we've identified three key trends shaping the future of healthcare that have guided our portfolio strategy. These include, one, the rise of smart, connected devices, robotics, AI, and informatics that transform the cost and quality of care; two, the shift of care towards lower cost, more convenient settings, including outpatient facilities and the home; and three, rapid growth in technologies to address chronic disease, one of the fastest-growing segments in healthcare.

Tom Polen: Over the last several years, we've built multiple growth platforms, each with billion-dollar-plus potential, that position new BD squarely at the center of these trends. From our nearly $5 billion connected care business with AI-driven advanced patient monitoring and connected medication management, to advanced pharmacy robotics, to leading platforms for biologic drug delivery at home, urinary incontinence, vascular disease, and tissue regeneration, new BD is positioned to lead in advancing the future of care. We have leading positions in more than 90% of the markets we serve, with over 90% of our revenues driven by recurring consumables. Every year, we manufacture more than 35 billion devices that reach healthcare providers across more than 190 countries. Few companies in healthcare are as foundational to the daily delivery of care, and that scale powers the strong free cash flow that underpins our strategy.

Tom Polen: While these trends guide where we innovate and invest, BD Excellence guides how we execute. Together, they shape our strategy for the new BD, excellence unleashed, which is expressed through our three strategic priorities: compete, innovate, and deliver. We've begun executing on these priorities and enhancing the speed and agility of the company. I'll share some examples of where we're seeing early positive momentum. Compete reflects how we're elevating our commercial capabilities to win in the fastest-growing parts of the market and deliver an exceptional customer experience. We made significant progress across our commercial initiatives this quarter, including planned Salesforce expansion and APM, PI, and advanced tissue regeneration, while accelerating initiatives to make PureWick at home available for our veterans. We're also seeing broad-based commercial success across the company. The Pyxis Pro launch is off to a good start, with 85% of initial orders coming from competitive conversions.

Tom Polen: Alaris delivered our strongest quarter of competitive wins since the relaunch, increasing our category share by approximately 100 basis points. Our medical essentials business also gained share across multiple categories and with major U.S. health systems, including in flush, PICCs, and catheters. Pharma systems delivered significant GLP-1 wins, with now over 80 novel and biosimilar GLP-1 molecules contracted in BD delivery devices. BDI saw continued strength with notable conversions in oncology and peripheral arterial disease and strong adoption of recent launches of PureWick Flex and GalaFLEX. These results reflect the strong execution of our teams and the growing impact of our commercial initiatives. Turning to our second priority, innovate. Innovate focuses on how we bring high-impact solutions to market, executing a pipeline that's now stronger, more focused, and more productivity-driven than ever.

Tom Polen: This quarter, we strengthened our innovation pipeline by completing the reallocation of $50 million of central R&D to the businesses to fund multiple new product innovations in our high-growth platforms. We also continued to scale BD Excellence into R&D, reducing development times and accelerating future launches by 6 to 12 months across several areas. In surgery, we entered several new markets, increasing our served markets by over $550 million in categories that offer higher growth, higher margin, and long-term strategic value. This includes the U.S. launch of Avitene Flowable, a next-generation flowable hemostat that strengthens our position in biosurgery and enters us into a nearly $400 million market, growing approximately 5% annually. We also advanced our global wound irrigation portfolio with the European launch of Surgiphor, a ready-to-use wound irrigation system that simplifies operating room workflows.

Tom Polen: In addition, we submitted Surgiphor Pulse to the FDA, a pulse lavage system which can expand BD's presence in this nearly $200 million market by approximately 40%. Finally, in connected care, HemoSphere Stream began targeted market release in the US and Europe following October's 510(k) clearance. Stream's smart cable compatibility can expand its addressable market tenfold, and early feedback has been very positive. Finally, our third priority, deliver, represents our commitment to operational excellence across safety, quality, delivery, and cash flow. As a result of the life sciences transaction and the network consolidation initiatives that we began in FY22, we've created a meaningfully simpler manufacturing network, reducing our network by nearly half to under 50 global sites, lowering costs, improving resiliency, and enabling scaled smart factories. We have actions underway to improve this even further.

[Interim CFO] (Becton Dickinson & Co): Thanks, Tom. Starting with revenue. Total company revenue of $5.3 billion grew 0.4%, with 2.5% growth in new BD. In medical essentials, MDS performance reflects expected order timing dynamics and volume-based procurement in China that was partially offset by continued share gains in the US in our vascular access management portfolio. Within specimen management, solid growth in BD Vacutainer portfolio in the US was offset by expected market dynamics in China, order timing, and a tough comparison to the prior year. Connected Care delivered solid mid-single-digit growth. Performance was led by APM, which grew high single digits on strong volume across the portfolio. In MMS, growth was led by pharmacy automation with double-digit growth in our BD Rowa platform. In our infusion business, growth was driven by sets, which were up strongly on increased utilization against last year's fluid supply shortage.

Victor Roque: Thanks, Tom. Starting with revenue. Total company revenue of $5.3 billion grew 0.4%, with 2.5% growth in new BD. In medical essentials, MDS performance reflects expected order timing dynamics and volume-based procurement in China that was partially offset by continued share gains in the US in our vascular access management portfolio. Within specimen management, solid growth in BD Vacutainer portfolio in the US was offset by expected market dynamics in China, order timing, and a tough comparison to the prior year. Connected Care delivered solid mid-single-digit growth. Performance was led by APM, which grew high single digits on strong volume across the portfolio. In MMS, growth was led by pharmacy automation with double-digit growth in our BD Rowa platform. In our infusion business, growth was driven by sets, which were up strongly on increased utilization against last year's fluid supply shortage.

[Interim CFO] (Becton Dickinson & Co): Alaris pumps performance was slightly ahead of our expectations despite the expected revenue decline due to tough comparison to the prior year. Biopharma systems grew low single digits with continued double-digit growth in biologics led by GLP-1s. This was partially offset by lower demand for vaccine products in line with our expectations. Interventional delivered solid mid-single-digit growth. This includes high single-digit growth in UCC driven by double-digit growth in PureWick. In surgery, we deliver mid-single-digit growth led by strong performance in our advanced tissue regeneration and infection prevention portfolios. Low single-digit growth in PI reflects strength in peripheral vascular disease and oncology, partially offset by China market dynamics. Life Sciences decline in the quarter. In DS, results were impacted by US point-of-care headwinds, a difficult prior-year comparison, and market dynamics in China.

Victor Roque: Alaris pumps performance was slightly ahead of our expectations despite the expected revenue decline due to tough comparison to the prior year. Biopharma systems grew low single digits with continued double-digit growth in biologics led by GLP-1s. This was partially offset by lower demand for vaccine products in line with our expectations. Interventional delivered solid mid-single-digit growth. This includes high single-digit growth in UCC driven by double-digit growth in PureWick. In surgery, we deliver mid-single-digit growth led by strong performance in our advanced tissue regeneration and infection prevention portfolios. Low single-digit growth in PI reflects strength in peripheral vascular disease and oncology, partially offset by China market dynamics. Life Sciences decline in the quarter. In DS, results were impacted by US point-of-care headwinds, a difficult prior-year comparison, and market dynamics in China.

[Interim CFO] (Becton Dickinson & Co): In BDB, growth was pressured by market dynamics in China, lower life science research funding, and a difficult compare from prior-year licensing revenue. Turning to the P&L, adjusted gross margin of 53.4% was down 140 basis points versus the prior year driven by approximately 170 basis points of tariffs, partially offset by productivity initiatives through BD Excellence. Adjusted operating margin of 21.2% was down 240 basis points versus the prior year due to the impact of tariffs and increased commercial investments in key growth areas. Despite these declines, both adjusted gross and operating margins were ahead of our expectations. Adjusted EPS of $2.91 was down 15.2% driven primarily by the impact of tariffs. However, earnings exceeded our expectations on the strength of both revenue performance and operational execution. Free cash flow was $548 million in the quarter.

Victor Roque: In BDB, growth was pressured by market dynamics in China, lower life science research funding, and a difficult compare from prior-year licensing revenue. Turning to the P&L, adjusted gross margin of 53.4% was down 140 basis points versus the prior year driven by approximately 170 basis points of tariffs, partially offset by productivity initiatives through BD Excellence. Adjusted operating margin of 21.2% was down 240 basis points versus the prior year due to the impact of tariffs and increased commercial investments in key growth areas. Despite these declines, both adjusted gross and operating margins were ahead of our expectations. Adjusted EPS of $2.91 was down 15.2% driven primarily by the impact of tariffs. However, earnings exceeded our expectations on the strength of both revenue performance and operational execution. Free cash flow was $548 million in the quarter.

[Interim CFO] (Becton Dickinson & Co): Free cash flow conversion improved to 66% versus 59% in the prior year driven by working capital discipline and capital efficiency. During the quarter, we returned approximately $550 million to shareholders, including dividends, and $250 million in share buybacks. We ended the quarter with net leverage of 2.9 times and remained committed to our 2.5 times long-term net leverage target. Moving to our Fiscal 2026 guidance for new BD. All guidance we are providing today is on a continuing operations basis and reflects the expected closing of the combination of our Life Sciences business with Waters. Following the closing, the separated business will be treated as discontinued operations for the full fiscal year. Our guidance includes deployments of $4 billion cash distribution we will receive as part of the transaction. For Fiscal 2026, we continue to expect new BD to deliver low single-digit revenue growth.

Victor Roque: Free cash flow conversion improved to 66% versus 59% in the prior year driven by working capital discipline and capital efficiency. During the quarter, we returned approximately $550 million to shareholders, including dividends, and $250 million in share buybacks. We ended the quarter with net leverage of 2.9 times and remained committed to our 2.5 times long-term net leverage target. Moving to our Fiscal 2026 guidance for new BD. All guidance we are providing today is on a continuing operations basis and reflects the expected closing of the combination of our Life Sciences business with Waters. Following the closing, the separated business will be treated as discontinued operations for the full fiscal year. Our guidance includes deployments of $4 billion cash distribution we will receive as part of the transaction. For Fiscal 2026, we continue to expect new BD to deliver low single-digit revenue growth.

[Interim CFO] (Becton Dickinson & Co): Based on current spot rates, currency is estimated to be a tailwind to revenue of about 120 basis points. Moving down to the P&L, we continue to expect adjusted operating margin of about 25% inclusive of impact of tariffs. Interest and other net is expected to be between $600 and $620 million. Our adjusted effective tax rate is expected to be between 16% and 17%. Weighted shares outstanding for the full year are expected to be approximately 282 million shares. Given these considerations, we are establishing an adjusted EPS guidance for new BD in a range of $12.35 to $12.65. This reflects growth of approximately 6% at the midpoint, including an impact of 370 basis points from tariffs. The net estimated impact of the closing of the Waters transaction, including the deployment of associated $4 billion cash distribution, is approximately $2.40.

Victor Roque: Based on current spot rates, currency is estimated to be a tailwind to revenue of about 120 basis points. Moving down to the P&L, we continue to expect adjusted operating margin of about 25% inclusive of impact of tariffs. Interest and other net is expected to be between $600 and $620 million. Our adjusted effective tax rate is expected to be between 16% and 17%. Weighted shares outstanding for the full year are expected to be approximately 282 million shares. Given these considerations, we are establishing an adjusted EPS guidance for new BD in a range of $12.35 to $12.65. This reflects growth of approximately 6% at the midpoint, including an impact of 370 basis points from tariffs. The net estimated impact of the closing of the Waters transaction, including the deployment of associated $4 billion cash distribution, is approximately $2.40.

Tom Polen: Yeah, thanks for the question, Travis, and good morning. So we're really pleased with the start of the year and Q1 performance. I think you saw our team executed well, and we saw strength across several of the high-growth areas of the portfolio. We can talk about those in just a bit. When it comes to Q2, nothing's fundamentally changed in our Q2 outlook. As you mentioned, the core growth drivers supporting new BD growth in Q1, they all remain intact, and we feel really good about the trajectory of the business. Our Q2 outlook does reflect some modest timing benefits in biopharma systems and MMS that we saw in Q1. And if you adjust for that, basically Q1 and Q2 are in line with each other. I think a few things we're really pleased to be starting the year at our full-year run rate.

Tom Polen: Yeah. Good morning, Patrick, and thanks for the question. Absolutely not. We feel really good about our portfolio. As we talked about, we've been extremely active over the last several years in very purposely reshaping our portfolio. We've done three significant divestitures, starting with diabetes, obviously V. Mueller, and most recently our life science business. We've very purposely brought in 20 tuck-in acquisitions, everything from our Parata Pharmacy Automation to APM and a number of others, all reshaping the portfolio in those high-growth areas that we've been talking about that we identified some time ago. Today, as you mentioned, we do have some known headwinds that are in 10% of our portfolio. The fundamentals across the remaining 90% remain very strong, and they continue to perform at a solid mid-single-digit growth. We're continuing to lean in behind those areas.

Tom Polen: You're seeing us put meaningful commercial investment behind those, the $30 million of incremental sales investments, all 100% on track. You heard that update on the call, investing behind areas like the Veterans Administration, PureWick now that's fully reimbursement for veterans, launching a number of plastic surgery products in Europe and Brazil, expanding our sales forces by 15% in PI and APM, all investing behind those growth areas, which is, again, you saw strong growth, double-digit growth, in fact, this past quarter in areas like PureWick, biologics, tissue reconstruction, and others. You saw high single-digit growth in areas like APM. Pharmacy automation grew double digits in the quarter. So again, we feel really good. Those aren't slowing down. We don't expect them to; we expect them to continue strong through the year.

Tom Polen: Yeah, thanks for the questions, Larry. Everything's playing out as we expected it in Q1, and we expect that to continue for the balance of the year. China was in line with our expectations in the quarter. Vaccines were relatively in line with expectations in the quarter, as was Alaris. If anything, we're seeing some really strong competitive momentum in Alaris. I think as we shared on the prepared remarks, we had a record in new competitive wins in the quarter. We gained about a full point of share just in the quarter. Those take some time to come through in our run rate as we implement those and see the consumables revenue pick up. But in terms of actual contract signed, deals closed, it was a really strong quarter in Alaris, which is exactly what we want to see. We're coming to the tail end of, of course, remediation.

[Interim CFO] (Becton Dickinson & Co): Hi, Robbie. This is Victor. So regarding Q2, so first, I think we were very pleased with Q1 performance. I think we started the year solidly, and it puts us in very sound grounds for the rest of the year. But for the Q2, as Tom mentioned on his remarks, nothing fundamentally changed on Q2. We have our core drivers supporting the new BD growth in Q1 actually continuing in Q2, and we expect that trajectory to continue for the rest of the year as well. In Q2, the only thing that happened is slight change timing situations in both pharma systems and MMS. But if you normalize for those factors, we actually had a little bit of a more normalized growth between Q1 and Q2. But I think the most important piece is that nothing fundamentally changed on our Q2.

Tom Polen: Okay. And Robbie, maybe just to share a little bit more color on the margin performance. We're continuing to be very focused. Our innovation pipeline and the areas where we're putting commercial investment are all both the innovation pipeline has a notably higher gross margin than our average portfolio, and the areas that we're putting commercial investment behind that we've talked about also have a notably higher gross margin than our broader portfolio. So those help fuel margin. At the same time, obviously, BD Excellence in our operations organization is continuing to gain momentum. We've been at it for a couple of years. We're still in relatively early innings. You saw us talk about 8% productivity improvements in the quarter. That's world-class levels. We're really proud of the teams there and how they're executing.

Tom Polen: You also heard us talk about, I think for the first time, share some statistics around our plant network. When we started the last phase of BD strategy, we talked about investing behind the network, simplification. You're seeing the outputs of that combined with, obviously, the separation of our life science business more than cutting our manufacturing network in half. So when we started the journey several years ago, we had a little over 90 manufacturing plants. We're under 50 today. And so these are fewer plants, more scaled plants where we're getting more leverage, more costs being spread over, higher volume in these sites, also all helping to contribute to our operating margin. So that's been something systematic that we've been working on. We're really pleased with that.

Tom Polen: Yeah. Good morning, Joanne, and thanks for the question. So utilization, as we think about just the broader hospital demand trends, we continue to see steady utilization levels in line with hospital surveys that we monitor. I'd say the CapEx environment, we also see remaining solid. We haven't seen any weather effects through January and into February. And then I would just say overall, too, as we think about utilization, over 90% of our revenue is consumables, particularly for new BD, which provides a very resilient base. And the portion that is CapEx, we're seeing that solid as well. You saw that come through very clearly in MMS. If you exclude kind of the dynamic of Alaris and the growth, MMS grew nearly 6% in the quarter, and that includes CapEx there. So really strong.

Tom Polen: We continue to have a very high win rate on both new novel molecules that are coming to market and on biosimilars. We updated some information today on the call. We now have more than 80 novel and biosimilar GLP-1s contracted in our devices. And we're continuing to see momentum in injectables. Obviously, there's always the question in the news. I know some investors of ours have asked a question about how do we think about oral injectables. Reality is we're seeing continued momentum in injectable GLP-1s. We continue to see the largest pharma companies putting billions of dollars, some very recent announcement in multi-billion-dollar investments in injectable capacity, including in the US. And people really view that orals as complementary rather than displacing injectables at scale.

Tom Polen: Yeah. We still feel very much with that on track. Our growth rate continues to be very strong as we share double digits. We're nearing that halfway point on that journey now. And again, you haven't seen the number of new novel molecules coming to market that will be over the next several years. And of course, as you look at the back half of this decade, you start really hitting stride on the biosimilars. And when we talk about our biosimilar portfolio, it's very broad geographically, right? So our biosimilar portfolio includes biosimilars across China, Southeast Asia, Europe, Latin America, Canada, and the US. It's a very broad global. And so as you think about certain patent expertise varying geographically, we have good exposure across those different time points. Thank you for the question.

Tom Polen: We just started quite a few new R&D programs as well this fiscal year, not only what we would normally start with our traditional increase, but that bolus of money starting more projects in tissue regeneration, some adjacencies in PureWick that we're really excited about, additional biologic drug delivery investments, and also in the connected care space. The other thing that we're seeing: some really positive, still early, but very positive results. As we shared, we're taking BD Excellence into commercial and into innovation. We actually have some dedicated resources now that go across working with our different R&D teams, doing Kaizens to accelerate our innovation timelines. We've been doing quite a few of those. We started that really in late last year. We've been doing those throughout Q1.

Tom Polen: And we've seen a number of R&D projects where we've accelerated timelines to launch by 6 and even up to 12 months on that. And so we're going to continue to get after that. We've got a goal to do all of our key development programs. We're focused on driving those Kaizens and accelerations this year. They're all scheduled with the teams. And so that capability and that momentum that we saw in operations through BD Excellence, we're really pleased with some of the early signs that we're seeing, taking those same processes and systems into innovation and also into our commercial organization. So we'll continue to provide updates on that as it progresses. And we'll look forward to sharing more through the year and eventually at an analyst day in the future on that innovation pipeline. Thanks for the question, Matt.

Tom Polen: We're pleased, obviously, this year between the $200 million-plus share buyback that we did, the $250 million buyback that we did in Q1, plus the $2 billion buyback that we're doing now through the ASR, but that's significant return of capital to our shareholders. As part of that balanced capital allocation strategy, we have communicated that we're focused on focused tuck-in M&A. Our focus remains on tuck-in M&A, not transformational M&A. We do have a robust pipeline from that perspective. When it comes to the criteria for those tuck-in M&A, they remain unchanged versus what we've shared in the past. That means accretive to revenue growth and accretive from an EPS perspective. We're not looking at dilutive M&A. We do see with the new BD, there's a number of very attractive high-growth sectors that we're in that we see the opportunity to supplement that WAMGR with tuck-in M&A.

Rick Wise: Good morning. Hi, Tom. Tom, you seem very well set up for the rest of the year. I think Victor said it, and I apologize that these are not the exact words, but I think you said prudent guidance for fiscal 2026. You're well set up for a stable, predictable outlook without the usual second-half ramp we've seen in the past. That's great. And sort of a variation, a little bit of Matt's question. I can't believe you're investing in Salesforce the way that you are, the M&A you've done, the focus on faster growth businesses, the cost-cutting. My question is, if there would be some upside to this thoughtfully prudent guidance in the next 2, 4, 6 quarters, do you think it would be from all the above? Is it more likely from the new products? Is it more likely to come from the expanded sales efforts?

Tom Polen: As we think about the areas that we're investing behind, those areas of high growth and higher margin: urinary incontinence, pharmacy automation, connected care, APM, tissue regeneration, biologics, right? Those are the areas that we're putting our investments behind, both commercially and disproportionately from an R&D perspective. And so those are areas that could be natural areas of opportunity for us. I think as Mike Feld now also is Chief Revenue Officer who's been running the Life Sciences segment, essentially as of today, he's now full-time in that role. We see opportunity. The reason we created that role, it's never existed in the history of BD, is we've been very good commercially. You don't get to our category-leading shares in 90% of the markets in which we compete without being good commercially.

Tom Polen: But we think there's another level of performance that we can reach, just like we've always been good operationally, but we're reaching and we're executing at levels that we've never executed at before operationally. We view that same opportunity exists commercially. And when we execute that, that will deliver higher growth, we're convinced of that. And so more to come there as Mike's now fully in that role. We'll provide more exposure to our investors on the programs that he's executing. It not only has to do with sales force expansion, but we've changed compensation plans for our selling organization around the world going into this year. We're putting in new tech stacks for our sales teams to help them be more effective. We're optimizing our management systems and processes with our selling organization, and Mike's leading that, working with our teams around the world.

Tom Polen: Yeah. Thanks for the question, Josh. So we continue to see, I'd say, a stable pricing environment relative. There's always pressure from our customers for pricing. That's something that we've obviously navigated for quite some time. And we're very focused on obviously articulating and delivering value to our customers and outcomes, both clinical outcomes and financial outcomes, through the technologies that we provide. Pricing, what we're seeing so far in Q1, details will come out further in the 10-Q that'll be filed later today. But overall, pricing, generally flat to slightly positive. That's up a little over 50 basis points ex-China positive price, offset by the pricing dynamic that we see in China. As we think about that going forward, we expect to continue to have positive pricing in the rest of the world.

Tom Polen: Surgiphor, which is complementary to ChloraPrep, but it's for once you're in the surgery. ChloraPrep's before the surgery. That's a whole new market for us. And HemoSphere Stream is really extending the HemoSphere platform into the general ward, expanding it to about 300,000 monitors that we don't tap into today, so a brand new market space for us with HemoSphere Stream. So there we make sure that pricing equals the value of the products and what they're delivering to our customers. I think the other thing is in areas and we have a number of new products launching in pharmacy automation, for example, for Central Fill, where the Pyxis Pro, which by the way, Pyxis Pro launched at a premium to the base Pyxis. But it's all associated with very clear data that we have that it's delivering greater economic value to our customers, right?

Tom Polen: Those areas, for example, it's meaningfully helping with nursing workflow by reducing drug shortages on the floor. Or in the case of pharmacy automation, it's reducing labor costs associated with preparing medications and pills. And it's enabling many places, let's say, like online pharmacies that are delivering to your home, for them to do that in warehouses, and they're starting from scratch. They never even hired pharmacists in the first place. They go straight to the robots and automation in their warehouses and are delivering medications to home, and they're able to do that in a cost-effective manner. So I think our solutions are well tailored to this environment that we're in and expect we'll continue to see, as is our innovation pipeline. So thanks for the question.

Tom Polen: We continue to innovate very rapidly on Alaris, not only on the current platform. We've of course had new 510(k)s approved since the original one that allowed us to relaunch the platform. But we're continuing to bring new features to Alaris. We have another one planned for submission late this year that'll add further new features to that. And of course, we also continue to, and we've shared in the past a whole new Alaris platform, which is moving forward very nicely through our innovation pipeline. And we'll look forward to sharing more details on in the future. But we feel good about Alaris. We feel good about our overall connected medication management platform. It's great to have Alaris and our new Pyxis Pro out there together as well, as we also shared Pyxis had a really strong competitive quarter in Q1 with the launch of Pyxis Pro.

Tom Polen: Okay. Thank you, operator. In summary, we delivered a solid Q1 results that exceeded our expectations, and we believe positions us well to achieve our full-year guidance. As we navigate transitory headwinds in contained areas within our business, our broader portfolio continues to perform well, and we're actively investing in high-growth, high-margin areas. To our Biosciences and Diagnostic Solutions colleagues transitioning to Waters, I want to thank you for your passion, professionalism, and the tremendous contributions you've made to BD. You're stepping into an exciting new opportunity with a strong growth-driven life science leader. We're proud of all you've accomplished and wish you every success in this next chapter. Of course, with the completion of the transaction this morning, we're very excited to fully pivot to our strategy for the new BD. We look forward to updating you on our progress next quarter.

AllMind AI

AllMind AI

Q1 2026 Becton Dickinson & Co Earnings Call

Event Details

Becton Dickinson

Q1 2026 Becton Dickinson & Co Earnings Call

Open Event Documents

Search Transcript

Becton Dickinson

Q1 2026 Becton Dickinson & Co Earnings Call

Transcript

No Transcript Available