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BD announces plans for discontinuation of conventional needle sales in the US across many product categories


BD is announcing plans to discontinue US sales of many conventional needles and other "sharps" devices across a range of product categories...

These actions coincide with the second anniversary of the April 18, 2001 compliance date for the Federal Needlestick Safety and Prevention Act, and reflect the significant progress made by US healthcare facilities in transitioning to safety-engineered designs.

"Over the past 15 years, the medical device manufacturing industry has introduced a continuous stream of safety-engineered sharps device innovations, all designed to protect healthcare workers from injuries", said Edward J. Ludwig, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of BD. "Hospitals and other healthcare facilities in the US have made great progress in the change-over to safety-engineered designs. Based on this progress, BD is now able to discontinue the sale of many conventional sharps devices, without disrupting patient care or clinical practice".

BD estimates that US hospitals have transitioned over 80 % of their sharps product usage from conventional to safety-engineered designs in the following categories:


IV catheters
"Needleless" IV connectors
Blood drawing needles
Winged needle sets
Lancet devices.
The level of transition is lower for syringes and needles, surgical blades and scalpels, and certain other categories of devices utilized for specialty medical procedures. Across all product categories, the overall level of transition to safety designs remains lower in clinics and physicians' offices than in hospitals.

A study recently published by the International Healthcare Worker Safety Center at the University of Virginia (*) indicates that the incidence of sharps injury to nurses in a multi-hospital network of US teaching facilities declined by 51 % between 1993 and 2001. According to Mr. Ludwig, "the results of this study provide clear evidence of the progress made over an eight year period in reducing sharps injury risks".

BD has already initiated the discontinuation of sales in the US of many conventional sharps devices across a range of product categories, including IV catheters, winged needle sets, lancets, and glass blood collection tubes. BD is communicating the details of these and additional discontinuations to its US customers, including specific products and timelines. BD Sales Consultants are prepared to work with healthcare facilities to help ensure a smooth transition.

Furthermore, the Company is actively pursuing transition to safety-engineered devices in countries throughout the world, and it will implement similar actions in other countries as their healthcare facilities reach a high level of transition.


(*) The University of Virginia's International Health Care Worker Safety Center is dedicated to identifying effective measures for reducing occupational exposure to and transmission of blood-borne pathogens to healthcare workers worldwide and fostering the rapid implementation of these measures in collaboration with healthcare institutions, government agencies and industry.



this sucks...I saw this on AM...

TweetEven though I'm a diehard Terumo guy, it still sucks that theres no choice left. Terumo is better in my book also but it would be nice if we have selection to choose from. I have some of those retractable syringes. They suck ass.