Dive Brief:
- Becton Dickinson has acquired MedKeeper to continue the push into pharmacy technologies that began with its recent $1.53 billion buyout of Parata Systems.
- Buying MedKeeper will add cloud-based pharmacy management applications to BD’s portfolio of technologies for supporting the preparation of compounded medications.
- BD is paying $93 million to acquire MedKeeper from pharmaceutical manufacturer Grifols, which itself bought the company in 2020. Grifols is selling the business as part of a plan to exit “non-strategic activities.”
Dive Insight:
Last month, BD agreed to buy Parata to gain technology for automating vial filling, packaging and central fill. Analysts framed the technology as complementary to BD’s Pyxis automated medication dispensers, adding that Parata could support the company’s goal of improving its operating margins by 2025.
Buying MedKeeper moves BD into another part of the pharmacy technology market. MedKeeper sells a photo-based medication workflow system that is designed to document all steps in the IV preparation process, making them available for remote review and approval by the pharmacist. MedKeeper pitches the technology as a way to improve efficiency and ensure compliance with compounding regulations.
Mike Garrison, worldwide president of medication management solutions at BD, said the software is well suited to the demands of the current pharmacy environment, where “COVID-impacted labor shortages and changing regulatory requirements have further exacerbated the need for customizable pharmacy software solutions.” In light of the pressures, Garrison sees a need to change old practices.
“Manual, time-consuming procedures that might once have been 'good enough' now can be replaced and augmented by software that enables pharmacists to provide a higher standard of care,” the BD executive said in a statement.
The acquisition is one of several made by BD this year, with the Parata buyout being preceded by the takeover of flow cytometry business Cytognos. BD also made a clutch of acquisitions last year.
