Heparin problems fail to halt Baxter earnings growth

Baxter International has posted a solid set of financials results for the first quarter which have not been too badly affected by the recent recall of its blood-thinning heparin products.

Net income rose 6% to $429 million, or $0.67 per share (+10%), while worldwide turnover totalled $2.88 billion. Revenues for Baxter's flagship bioscience biopharmaceutical unit grew 13% to $1.2 billion, helped by sales of of its Advate treatment for haemophilia A. Medication delivery revenues were up 8% to $1.1 billion, “with strong global sales of intravenous and nutritional therapies, and significant growth in international sales of anesthesia products and injectable drugs”, Baxter said, while renal sales increased 6% to $558 million.

The firm has been in the headlines of late since it pulled its heparin products in the USA, after it was linked to allergic reactions and deaths. The US Food and Drug Administration said this month that 62 people who took heparin have died since January 2007 after allergic reactions and the agency's commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach told a US Senate hearing this week that there are suspicions that Baxter's product was intentionally contaminated to reduce the cost.

The recall cost $19 million in the quarter and Baxter said it has not decided whether to resume selling heparin. Chief executive Robert Parkinson said that the firm would continue working with US regulators to understand the contamination and ”the supply chain management issues'' before deciding whether to resume sales.