Medical Device Company Intelligence Reports provide a full review of the company's activities, from its origins to its latest corporate activity, including mergers and acquisitions, agreements, divestitures, major purchasing contracts and litigation. Sections are included on products, international activities and R&D, as well as a full, in-depth five year financial analysis. An introduction to each report and a full table of contents is provided for review. More than 60 Medical Device Company Intelligence Reports are currently available. Baxter International, based in Deerfield, Illinois, USA, manufactures products for people with life-threatening conditions such as cancer, trauma, haemophilia, immune deficiencies, infectious diseases and kidney disease. It operates in three segments, as follows:-

Medication Delivery - infusion systems, access systems, alternate care products, anaesthesia and critical care products, parenteral nutrition, injectable drugs and IV therapy products.

Renal - dialysis products and services, including peritoneal dialysis solutions, container systems and automated machines and solutions for haemodialysis (HD). The unit used to provide HD instruments but discontinued their manufacture in July 2005.

BioScience - recombinants, plasma proteins, antibody therapy, vaccines and regenerative medicine products. Also used to offer manual and automated blood collection products and storage equipment through its Transfusion Therapies unit but sold the business in February 2007.

Only Baxter's medical device activities are covered in this profile. These products include infusion systems and accessories, IV therapies and drug delivery products within the Medication Delivery segment, the whole Renal division and regenerative medicine products within the BioScience unit. Products such as drugs for IV delivery and anaesthesia, inhalation agents, coagulation factors, immune globulins, albumin, vaccines and dialysis solutions are not included.

Within Baxter's medical device operations, key areas of focus for Baxter include resuming sales of its infusion pumps and developing its peritoneal dialysis product line. A new area for the company in recent years has been biosurgery and regenerative medicine, including products for hard and soft tissue repair and regeneration. The company's investments in this area have included acquisitions, internal R&D and strategic alliances. The company has agreements with Vectura, whereby it offers the Adept adhesion reduction solution for use in obstetric and gynaecologic surgery and with Angiotech Pharmaceuticals for its CoSeal vascular sealant. Baxter also has a research agreement with Kuros for the development of biomaterials addressing hard and soft tissue repair. It also has rights outside the US to Angiotech's Adhibit non-drug-loaded surgical adhesion prevention product, as well as an option to obtain US rights for the product. In a move into other areas of regenerative medicine, Baxter is also investigating the use of stem cells in the treatment of chronic myocardial ischaemia.

Baxter believes its global presence and infrastructure is one of its key strengths. In 2006, 56% of Baxter's sales were generated outside the US and 58% of its workforce was internationally based. Baxter maintains 16 manufacturing facilities in US, including three in Puerto Rico. The company also manufactures in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, Germany, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malta, Mexico, the Philippines, Poland, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey and the UK. The majority of these facilities are shared by more than one of the company's business segments.