B. Braun

The company began in 1839 as a pharmacy in Melsungen, where it started to sell medical herbs by mail to customers in Germany.

Later, a manufacturing plant was built, where production of several medical products began, mainly surgical sutures. With this product, Braun started to supply to hospitals, and added in the following decades other product lines to its manufacturing program, like intravenous solutions, monitoring apparatus and other medical devices. In the 1960s, Braun became highly specialised in plastics for pharmaceutical and medical uses, and developed the first plastic container for I. V. solutions in 1956, as well as many other products for patient care in hospitals.

As the company grew, manufacturing facilities were acquired or established in the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, the United States, Brazil and Malaysia. B. Braun acquired Aesculap AG, a Germany-based manufacturer of surgical instruments. B. Braun and its subsidiaries employ more than 54,000 people in more than 60 countries as of 2014.

In 1969, the company introduced Lyodura. Similar products from other manufacturers were removed from the market in the USA and Canada in 2002. In the same year, B. Braun Melsungen agreed with the Japanese health authorities to pay compensation to the families of the victims of over $600,000 each.

In 2009, the company was named the best company in Germany to work for.

In February 2012, the company announced that it was no longer passing on human insulin. In the same year, B. Braun came into the market for genetic diagnostics with a participation in Tübinger Cegat GmbH.

From 2012 to 2013, B. Braun increased its share in Rhön-Klinikum from 5 to 18 percent in order secure a minority blocking stake in the company; it also won antitrust approval for raising its stake to 25 percent. Together with another shareholder, hospitals operator Asklepios Kliniken, it opposed a takeover by Fresenius. In late 2013, B. Braun filed a lawsuit to contest the sale of most of Rhön-Klinikum’s hospitals, which accounted for about two-thirds of the company’s revenues. After that sale was completed, B. Braun reduced its share.

In 2013, B. Braun opened a day and seminar center in the Haydau monastery complex in Morschen.

On an international level, B. Braun is separated into several divisions:

Hospital Care Division, which handles products related to infusion and injection and other disposable hospital supplies.

Aesculap Division, which handles products and services related to surgery.

OPM (Out Patient Market) Division

Controversies

In 1969, B. Braun released Lyodura, a graft product used in neurosurgery as a patch material on the brain. The grafts were harvested from donor cadavers and have been shown to transmit Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease (CJD), an incurable and inevitably fatal degenerative neurological disorder. Additionally, Lyodura was harvested through black-market cadavers, meaning that donor grafts lacked patient histories. At least 154 people have been diagnosed with CJD due to Lyodura.

As of December 2024, B. Braun continues its operations in Russia. According to data from the Leave Russia project, B. Braun's Russian subsidiary reported revenues of approximately $291 million and employed 1,362 staff members in 2021. Despite the ongoing conflict and international calls for companies to exit the Russian market, B. Braun has maintained its business activities in the country.

Legal issues

In 2010, B. Braun Medical, a unit of B. Braun, agreed to pay $14.7 million for causing the Medicaid program in the US to pay inflated amounts on dozens of its products.