BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) announced it has reached an agreement to resolve the vast majority of its existing hernia litigation. Terms of the settlement agreement, which are confidential, include cases in both the Rhode Island consolidated litigation and the federal multidistrict litigation in Ohio. The aggregate amount payable pursuant to this settlement is within the company's current product litigation reserve for this matter and will be paid out over a multi-year period. As a result, the settlement amount is already recorded as a liability within BD's consolidated balance sheet and the agreement will not result in an incremental charge to the company's consolidated income statement. BD believes this agreement is in the best interest of all parties and is structured to eliminate uncertainty for all stakeholders related to the settled cases. The hernia mass tort litigation represents a large majority of BD's total product litigation reserve.