BD (Franklin Lakes, New Jersey) reported record quarterly revenues of $1.651 billion for the fourth quarter ended Sept. 30, an increase of about 13% over the prior year.

BD said this quarter’s growth rate reflects the favorable impact on all segments from foreign currency translation, which overall is estimated to account for 3 percentage points of the increase in quarterly revenues.

The company also reported record revenues of $6.360 billion for the full fiscal year ended Sept. 30, representing an increase of 11% over last year, which reflects an overall estimated 3% favorable impact from foreign currency translation that affected all segments.

Not surprisingly, Edward Ludwig, president/CEO and chairman of BD, said the company was pleased that it exceeded its financial and operating goals for the year.

“Our performance was strong across all three segments. We continue to invest in innovation while delivering double-digit earnings growth. Strong cash flow driven by operating margin expansion enables us to return value to shareholders through dividend increases and share repurchases. We are enthusiastic about our outlook for fiscal 2008,” Ludwig said.

During a BD conference call Thursday, Ludwig told listeners that this is the seventh consecutive year that the company has achieved or exceeded its annual objectives.

Ludwig said the company’s strategy has two core elements, the first being to increase sustainable revenue growth with products that address significant healthcare problems and deliver demonstrably higher benefits to healthcare workers, patients and researchers.

“Our plan is to grow the revenue primarily organically and we’ve been saying and continue to say that organic growth should be in the 7%-9% range,” Ludwig said. “We will complement this primary organic growth strategy by making targeted acquisitions which will enhance our key strategic capabilities, and I think GeneOhm and TriPath are excellent examples of strategic targeted acquisitions which increase our basic capabilities.”

BD completed its $230 million acquisition of GeneOhm Sciences (San Diego) in February 2006 (Medical Device Daily, Feb. 15, 2006). GeneOhm develops molecular diagnostic testing for the rapid detection of bacterial organisms, including those known to cause healthcare-associated infections.

The company finished its $350 million acquisition of TriPath Imaging (Burlington, North Carolina) at the end of last year (MDD, Dec. 21, 2006). TriPath makes products intended to improve the clinical management of cancer.

The second element in BD’s strategy, Ludwig said, is the company’s “commitment to achieving outstanding operating effectiveness and productivity to accelerate our progress.”

“Our success in the operating effectiveness component of our strategy should result in outstanding customer satisfaction, strong cash flow and expanding operating margins,” Ludwig said. “Achieving operating effectiveness will very importantly enable us to increase our investments in innovation, which will in turn fuels our future growth.”

In the BD Medical segment, worldwide revenues for the quarter were $868 million, representing an increase of 11% from fourth quarter 2006. For the full fiscal year ended Sept. 30, the BD Medical segment reported 10% revenue growth to $3.421 billion. Strong sales in the pharmaceutical systems unit continued to significantly contribute to the growth of the segment, the company said.

In the BD Diagnostics segment, worldwide revenues for the quarter were $498 million, representing an increase of 16% from fourth quarter of last year. This growth includes $29 million of revenues from TriPath, a maker of solutions to improve the clinical management of cancer, which was acquired at the end of the 1Q07. For the full fiscal year ended Sept. 30, the BD Diagnostics segment reported revenue growth of 11% to $1.905 billion, which includes $88 million of revenues from TriPath, the company said.

In the BD Biosciences segment, worldwide revenues for the quarter were $285 million, representing an increase of 14% from 4Q06. Sales of flow cytometry and bioimaging instruments, flow cytometry reagents, and advanced bioprocessing products contributed to growth, the company said. For the full fiscal year ended Sept. 30, the BD Biosciences segment reported 13% revenue growth to $1.034 billion, resulting from continued strong sales of those same products, BD noted.

The company said 4Q revenues in the U.S. were $790 million, representing an increase of 12% over 4Q06. Revenues outside the U.S. were $861 million, representing a 13% increase over 4Q06 revenues, and about a 5% favorable impact from foreign currency translation.

For the full fiscal year ended Sept. 30, revenues in the U.S. were $3.033 billion, representing an 11% increase over last year. Revenues outside of the U.S. were $3.327 billion, which also represents an 11% increase over last year, and about a 5% favorable impact from foreign currency translation.

Ludwig also told conference call listeners that the company has what he calls the BD success paradigm, consisting of four elements.

“BD is most effective when we are identifying emerging or underappreciated healthcare problems. We did this 20 years ago with healthcare worker safety, we’re doing it today with healthcare associated infections,” he said, highlighting the first of the four elements.

Second, he said, the company applies technology to solve these problems. The technology is principally developed organically, he said, but it occasionally is supplemented by acquisitions.

Third, Ludwig said BD uses its manufacturing experience to produce these products with “very high” quality and “very low” cost so they can be affordable and available to people all over the world.

Fourth, “we surround these products with outstanding service and support,” Ludwig said, going so far as to compare some of the company’s sales people to missionaries.

BD makes medical devices, instrument systems and reagents, and says it is focused on improving drug therapy, enhancing the quality and speed of diagnosing infectious diseases, and advancing research and discovery of new drugs and vaccines.