Businessweek

C. R. Bard, Inc. engages in the design, manufacture, packaging, distribution, and sale of medical, surgical, diagnostic, and patient care devices. The company sells a range of products to hospitals, individual healthcare professionals, extended care facilities, and alternate site facilities on a worldwide basis. It operates in the markets for vascular, urology, oncology, and surgical specialty products. Vascular Products The company’s vascular products cover a range of minimally invasive devices for the treatment of peripheral vascular disease (PVD) and heart arrhythmias. These products include percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA) catheters, chronic total occlusion (CTO) catheters, guidewires, fabrics, meshes, introducers and accessories; peripheral vascular stents, covered stents and vascular grafts; vena cava filters; biopsy devices; and electrophysiology products, including electrophysiology laboratory systems and diagnostic, therapeutic and temporary pacing electrode catheters. The company offers Conquest, Atlas and Dorado PTA catheters for the treatment of arterial venous access stenosis and other PVDs. It also provides Ultraverse and VascuTrak PTA catheters and Crosser CTO catheters in the small-vessel segment of the PVD market. The company’s line of peripheral vascular stents, covered stents and vascular grafts includes the Flair AV (arterial venous) Access Stent Graft, EŸLuminexx and LifeStar Iliac Stents, and the LifeStent family of stents approved for use in the superficial femoral and proximal popliteal arteries. The company’s vena cava filters product line includes devices which can be either permanently implanted or retrieved after the threat of blood clots traveling from the lower extremities to a patient’s lungs has passed. It offers a portfolio of automatic core needle biopsy devices, including MaxCore and Magnum. It offers EnCor and EnCor Enspire breast biopsy systems for ultrasound-, stereotactic- and MRI-guided breast biopsy procedures. With SenoRx products, the company offers a variety of products across the percutaneous breast biopsy and tissue marker segments. Urology Products The company’s urology products include basic drainage products, continence products and urological specialty products. Its Foley catheters include the infection control Foley catheter (Bardex I.C. Foley catheter), which reduce the rate of urinary tract infections. Other urology products include surgical slings used to treat stress urinary incontinence; fecal incontinence products; devices for the treatment of pelvic floor and vaginal prolapse; brachytherapy services, devices and radioactive seeds used to treat prostate cancer; intermittent urinary drainage catheters, urine monitoring and collection systems; ureteral stents; and specialty devices for stone removal procedures. The company also markets the proprietary line of StatLock catheter stabilization devices, which are used primarily to secure peripheral intravenous catheters, thereby reducing restarts and other complications. These devices are also used to secure other types of catheters sold by the company and other companies, including Foley catheters. In November 2011, the company acquired Medivance, Inc. whose Arctic Sun system with proprietary ArcticGel pads provides Targeted Temperature Management therapy to patients requiring therapeutic hypothermia. Oncology Products The company’s oncology products cover a range of devices used in the treatment and management of various cancers and other diseases and disorders. These include specialty vascular access catheters and ports, vascular access ultrasound devices, dialysis access catheters, and enteral feeding devices. The company’s specialty vascular access products are used primarily for chemotherapy. The company’s peripherally inserted central catheters (PICCs) include PowerPICC catheters and PowerPort devices that can be used to inject contrast media at high flow rates. These devices eliminate the need to place an additional catheter in the significant number of PICC and port recipients who also require contrast enhanced CT (computed tomography) scans. The company’s Site-Rite va