Becton Dickinson’s 24bn USD acquisition of U.S. peer C.R. Bard, as reported by Reuters, has secured its position as one of the top 10 global healthcare companies in terms of both revenue and innovation. Although the combined company will still wield a smaller patent portfolio than the industry giants, the average quality of the portfolio is significantly above average, surpassed only by Johnson & Johnson. This high quality means the combined entity now has 6th strongest portfolio in the field of healthcare, as defined by ip-search a division of the CHPTO, out of the top 30 medical device manufacturers, by annual revenue reported in MPO magazine.