Becton Dickinson to Pay $175 Million for Misleading Investors About Alaris Infusion Pump

The Securities and Exchange Commission today announced settled charges against Becton, Dickinson and Company, a New Jersey-based medical device manufacturer known as BD, for repeatedly misleading investors about risks associated with its continued sales of its Alaris infusion pump and for overstating its income by failing to record the costs of fixing multiple software flaws with the pump. BD agreed to pay a $175 million civil penalty. According to the SEC’s order, BD determined in 2016 that software changes made to the Alaris pump required regulatory clearance from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). However, BD did not have the data required for clearance, and generating the data would delay the release of new features, so BD continued selling the pump without clearance.