Medical Device Daily Executive Editor

SAN FRANCISCO — Many medical device companies capture public and investor attention by focusing their development efforts on new whiz-bang technologies that sometimes turn out to be the biomedical equivalent to "new cuisine," where presentation seems to mean far more than taste.

C.R. Bard (Murray Hill, New Jersey) isn't one of those companies.

As Chairman and CEO Timothy Ring showed during his presentation at the 24th annual JPMorgan Healthcare Conference, which runs through Thursday at the venerable Westin St. Francis Hotel on Union Square, Bard is much more a meat-and-potatoes kind of company, offering a broad range of primarily utilitarian products in what many might consider unhip market segments.

The company, which will mark its 100th anniversary in 2007, has some 8,600 employees and is very much a global presence, with operations in 23 countries.

Its broad array of offerings comprises more than 100 major product lines across four business sectors — vascular, urology, oncology and surgical specialty — and produces what Ring characterized as "consistent double-digit revenue growth."

Thomson First Call estimates 2005 total revenues of $1.78 billion when results are posted for the year ended Dec. 31. Ring also cited the firm's ongoing goal of 14% annual growth in earnings per share.

He noted that Bard is focusing on acquisition of new technologies, with a preference for acquiring technologies at an early stage "and developing [them] ourselves."

Ring said the company is well positioned for such acquisitions, generating about $300 million in free cash annually. "We want to close more deals" in 2006, he said, adding: "We have the financial flexibility to pursue development projects."

During his presentation, Ring cited a number of what he termed "groundbreaking" products that Bard has in the marketplace across its business lines, including the Conquest peripheral PTCA catheter, Fluency stent graft, Recovery vena cava filter and the Vacora biopsy device.

He also touched on Bard's efforts in the atrial fibrillation (AF) space, noting that the company kept that program when it sold off the rest of its interventional cardiology business in 1998.

"Some 2.2 million Americans are afflicted with AF today," Ring said. "We think as many as half of them can be treated by our catheter."

He said European approval of the device is anticipated in the second half of this year, with U.S. clearance coming in 2007.

In the urology sector, Ring highlighted the Bardex I.C. Catheter, with an infection control focus; PelviSoft collagen biomesh; Tagress urethral bulking agent for stress incontinence; and pelvic floor reconstruction products.

He also cited surgical specialty products, including those for soft-tissue repair, primarily for hernia repair. Ring said applications in abdominal hernia repairs, usually very complex procedures, hold particular interest.

Also in the surgical specialty business, he cited Bard's endoscopic suturing technology.