Bard Manufacturing history

In 1915, Bard partnered with Morgan Parker, forming the partnership Bard-Parker to distribute a new type of scalpel.

The two partners could not resolve their differences, and in 1923 Parker bought out Bard's interest in the partnership for $23,000.

1926: Bard sells his company to John Frederick Willits and Edson L. Outwin for $18,000.

In 1929 the company added another sales representative, Willits's son Harris, to cover the upper Midwest, New York, and Canada.

From our first patented oil furnace in the 1930’s to today’s indoor air quality products, Bard continues to meet the progressively changing needs of our customers with dedicated product innovation.

Randolph Bard joined Dale in the business and in 1934 they produced the first patented oil furnace.

In 1935, the first patented gas furnace was added to the line.

In 1945 Outwin and John Willits switched positions at the company, with Outwin becoming company president and Willits, vice-president.

Bard commissioned a 5,400-square-foot building to be constructed in Summit, New Jersey, and in March 1948, the company moved there from its Madison Avenue offices.

During the 1950s, net sales grew more than 400 percent, and the number of employees increased to 200.

1957: C.R. Bard begins marketing its products in presterilized packages.

In 1961 the company moved its headquarters to a 50,000-square-foot building in Murray Hill, New Jersey.

Bard became a public company in 1963 when the Outwin family sold their stock on the over-the-counter market.

Bard's first in-house manufacturing began in 1964 with the molding and assembling of medical plastic tubing.

Outwin remained chairperson until 1966, when he resigned due to ill health.

By 1969, Bard owned 14 plants and was manufacturing 75 percent of the 6,000 products it sold.

Furthermore, Med-Econ Plastics of California, a maker of disposable plastic respiratory products, was acquired in 1972, as well as Sani-Pac Corp. of New York, manufacturers of bed pads and adult diapers.

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In 1979 Bard obtained the sole rights to manufacture and sell the Gruntzig angioplasty catheter.

1980: Davol Inc. is acquired.

In 1982, Bard opened a second plant, in Georgia, to be closer to its southern customers.

In 1990 McCaffrey retired, and Maloney became president and CEO. Shortly after that, William H. Longfield was named company president.

While catheter sales for that year were virtually nonexistent, Bard reentered the angioplasty market in April 1991.

Late in 1993 the company acquired Redmond, Washington-based Bainbridge Sciences Inc., developer of diagnostic tests for early detection of prostate, bladder, cervical, and lung cancer.

He and two other defendants were eventually acquitted, but the other three were found guilty in August 1995, and one year later each was sentenced to 18 months in jail.

In its largest deal yet, Bard paid about $143 million for Impra, Inc. late in 1996.

The company also sold its diagnostic sciences unit and its intra-aortic balloon-catheter and pump business in 1998 and its cardiopulmonary division the following year.

C.R. Bard ended the decade by reporting 1999 profits of $118.1 million on revenues of $1.04 billion.

By 2000, Bard had sold off most of the rest of its heart-related device manufacturing.

During 2001 Bard acquired Surgical Sense, Inc., maker of the Kugel patch, which was used in the surgical repair of hernias.

2002: Drop in Tyco shares leads to a cancellation of the sale to Tyco.

In August 2003 Longfield retired, though he remained on the board of directors.

In August 2004 C.R. Bard announced an agreement to sell its line of disposable endoscopes used to diagnose lung and digestive-tract conditions to Conmed Corporation for $80 million.

In 2005, the Bard Foundation was organized.

In 2006, the family ownership went into the fourth generation when Bill Steel, Pam Steel and Scott Bard purchased the company from the third generation.

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However, in 2010 sales and hours worked were beginning to rebound.

In 2011, Bard offered to pay $184 million to resolve more than 3,000 lawsuits filed over injuries from the patches.

In 2012, Bard agreed to pay the federal government $48.26 million to resolve charges it violated two federal laws.

In 2014, the company agreed to settle another 500 for $21 million.

In 2015, NBC News ran a series of reports claiming Bard officials were aware of potentially lethal problems with some of the company’s inferior vena cava (IVC) filters.

Based in Murray Hill, New Jersey, Bard reported $531 million in net income on $3.7 billion in revenue for 2016 before the BD acquisition.

In 2017, it became a wholly owned subsidiary of Becton, Dickinson & Company (BD). The company manufactures thousands of medical devices and sells them worldwide.

In March 2018, a jury awarded Sherr-Una Booker $3.6 million in the first Bard trial.

In BD’s 2019 annual report, the company said it set aside $2.5 billion for product liability.

In September 2020, Bard agreed to settle lawsuits with 48 states related to marketing of its pelvic mesh products for $60 million.

The device maker faces 1,322 federal IVC filter lawsuits in Arizona federal court as of March 2021.