BD Reaches Agreement for the Majority of Hernia Litigation

BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) announced it has reached an agreement to resolve the majority of its existing hernia litigation. The hernia mass tort litigation represents a large majority of BD’s total product litigation reserve.
 
The settlement does not include any admission of liability or wrongdoing, and BD continues to dispute the allegations in these matters. The company will continue to vigorously defend itself in cases not resolved through this agreement.
 
Terms of the settlement agreement are confidential and include cases in both the Rhode Island consolidated litigation and the federal multidistrict litigation in Ohio. The aggregate amount payable under this settlement is within the company’s current product litigation reserve for this matter and will be paid out over a multi-year period. 
 
The multi-year payment structure was contemplated as part of the company’s cash flow planning process and was included in its previously communicated free cash flow goals and capital allocation strategy.
 
As a result, the settlement amount is already recorded as a liability within BD’s consolidated balance sheet and the agreement will not result in an incremental charge to the company’s consolidated income statement. BD believes this agreement is in the best interest of all parties and is structured to eliminate uncertainty for all stakeholders related to the settled cases.