Babson Diagnostics, BD Expand Strategic Partnership to Advance Diagnostic Blood Collection in New Care Settings

Expanded Collaboration Agreement to Make Less Invasive Blood Sample Collection More Convenient and Patient Centered

AUSTIN, TEXAS AND FRANKLIN LAKES, N.J. (May 11, 2022) – Babson Diagnostics, a science-first, health care technology company, and BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) (NYSE: BDX), a leading global medical technology company, today announced the expansion of a strategic partnership to move blood sample collection into new care settings, including enabling patients to collect blood samples at home for diagnostic testing.

Since 2019, the two companies have collaborated to create a capillary blood collection and testing system, now in advanced development, to enable laboratory-quality, small-volume capillary blood collection at retail settings by team members with no previous experience in blood collection. Plans under the expanded agreement include continuing research and development to enable self-collection, mobile services and at-home collection. Babson and BD also will expand the types of blood tests that are possible through small-volume blood collection beyond primary care-oriented tests, and they also plan to develop diagnostic tests for pediatric use.

“Today’s agreement expands our long-standing partnership with BD and builds on our shared passion of making convenient blood testing accessible to all, not only in the U.S., but also globally,” said David Stein, chief executive officer of Babson Diagnostics. “Extending the medical home is critical in today’s health care environment. We believe that retail convenience is perfect for today’s consumer, but because the Babson service is well-suited to many settings with no need for a phlebotomist and an easier collection experience, we see many opportunities for future expansion.”

Over this long-term collaboration, Babson and BD are advancing development of the blood testing ecosystem, which includes BD’s next generation capillary collection technology and Babson’s proprietary automated sample-handling and analytical technologies. These have been designed to work together to enable blood testing that requires only one-tenth the sample volume of traditional venipuncture methods without sacrificing quality, accuracy, or the number and types of tests that are possible.

“This is a paradigm-shifting solution that addresses multiple unmet needs within the current health care system,” said Brooke Story, president of Integrated Diagnostics Solutions for BD. “Because it is less invasive and more convenient than the traditional venous blood draw method, capillary blood collection may lead to an improved patient experience, which in turn could help health care providers see better compliance among patients for routine blood testing.”

BD brings 70 years of specimen management experience to the partnership and is a leader in blood collection technology, including the development of the new, state-of-the-art capillary collection device[i]. Babson provides deep instrument analyzer expertise and is building an ecosystem for blood collection in the pharmacy setting as well as designing the systems and workflows to analyze small volume capillary blood in a central lab. Babson continues to work with local and national pharmacy chains to conduct extensive clinical studies of its service platform in preparation for commercial launch.

[i] The capillary collection device is an investigational device under 21 C.F.R. 812 and requires additional studies to make any definitive conclusions about safety or efficacy