Baxter To Split Into Two Companies

Baxter International plans to split into two independent companies by mid-2015: one for medical products and the other for biopharmaceuticals. CEO Robert L. Parkinson Jr. attributes the decision to split to “diverging business dynamics.” The medical products business had 2013 revenues of $9 billion and markets intravenous products, nutritional therapies, drug delivery systems, and injectable drugs. The biopharmaceuticals business had revenues of approximately $6 billion. Parkinson will hold the CEO spot for the medical products company, which will retain the Baxter name. Ludwig N. Hantson, currently president of the company’s biopharmaceuticals business, will head the as-yet-unnamed biopharma company.