The firm, which halted production at its plant in Fuskushima after it was damaged by the earthquake earlier this year, had expressed concerns about the impact the event would have on its business and finances.

However, according to comments made during its second quarter results presentation, order volumes for its products had now returned to normal levels following a faster-than expected recovery.

BD told Bloomberg Businessweek that in total the earthquake had cost it less than $10m (€6.7m) over the period.

Solid growth

In addition to the recovery in Japan, BD said it had experienced “solid growth” in the medical and diagnostics segment,

The company said worldwide revenues in its medical segment were up by 6.5 per cent to $981m (€660m), reflecting strong sales of its diabetes care and pharmaceutical systems products. In addition, revenues from emerging markets up by 13 per cent.

These results represented a $605m contribution from the firm’s diagnostics segment, up 89 per cent on the year earlier period, and $335m from its bioscience business, up 4.1 per cent.

Edward Ludwig, chairman and CEO of BD, welcomed the results and said: “We are pleased with our solid results this quarter, which were in line with our expectations.

“We continued with the increased pace of our R&D spending, and made strategic investments, such as our acquisition of Accuri Cytometers, demonstrating our commitment to driving revenue growth through innovation.”