BD to sell discovery labware unit to Corning

BD has agreed a deal with Corning Incorporated over the sale of the discovery labware unit of BD Biosciences.

Under the terms of the agreement, Corning will pay $730 million (457.92 million pounds) to take control of the business, excepting its advanced bioprocessing platform.

The deal is expected to be completed before the end of the calendar year and will help to ensure that the division can continue to grow and succeed, despite BD's decision to refocus its strategy.

Corning is a respected industry player with more than 160 years of materials science and process engineering expertise and experience.

William Kozy, executive vice-president for BD, said: "This sale will enable our BD Biosciences segment to focus resources and management attention on both our recent biosciences acquisitions and our recently-launched new instrumentation products, which are essential to our accelerated growth efforts."

According to financial data released in February, BD generated $1.89 billion in sales during the first three months of its 2012 business year, up by 2.5 percent year over year.