Becton, Dickinson & Co. (NYSE: BDX) is seeing shares hitting new all-time highs as it has received clearance from the U.S. FDA for the BD GeneOhm(TM) StaphSR assay.

This is BD Diagnostic’s new assay that is the first test available to rapidly and simultaneously identify two deadly healthcare-associated infections:

• Staphylococcus aureus (SA) and
• methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)

This test has a mere two-hour result time that tests abd identifies patients with positive blood cultures.  If this goes as it should, physicians can implement treatment much faster for patients with bloodstream infections and significantly reducing healthcare costs.  Current tests take more than a day to get results and many patients die annually from untreated staph or from drug-resistant staph strains.

An October 2007 report in Journal of the American Medical Association (on the U.S. extent of MRSA— methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) stated that MRSA deaths in 2005 were an estimated 19,000, exceeding that of HIV/AIDS.  This is getting worse rather than better.  The widespread count of staph infections is actually increasing and until recently has been frequently misdiagnosed.  Most infections of this sort are still thought to be from hospital settings although after seeing this firsthand staph is becoming a common problem everywhere. 

To show you an example of how valuable this is, Becton Dickinson shares are up more than 4% at $87.30 today, an all-time high.  As far as how this translates into money BDX has a $21.5 Billion market cap after today’s gains. 

Jon C. Ogg
January 2, 2008

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