In the early stages of the COVID pandemic, as most of the world sought hope amid soaring death tolls and sinking economies, a New Jersey company looked ahead and readied itself for the moment when a medical solution would arrive. Anticipating the development of vaccines as well as a red-hot worldwide demand for its products, Becton Dickinson, the world′s leading syringe manufacturer, ramped up production at plants in the U.S., Asia, and Europe early in 2020. Hundreds of millions of orders poured in from across the globe and in response, the Franklin Lakes-based company produced 1 billion more needles and syringes than in a typical year, an increase of more than 2,000 a minute.
