Product Development

Product development is at the core of Baxter's business, with innovation providing a critical engine for future growth. Through individual business units and corporate research & development (R&D), Baxter strives to provide new products that will meet the needs of current and future patients. Additionally, the company’s Base of the Pyramid initiative strives to better serve the needs of patients at the lowest end of the economic spectrum. Examples of Baxter product innovation include:

Developing Healthcare Solutions for Emerging Markets

In 2009, Baxter introduced the first premixed intravenous (IV) drugs developed at the China Premix R&D Centre in Suzhou, China. The facility, opened in 2006, is Baxter’s first premixed drug facility outside the United States and Europe. Having an R&D presence in China enables the company to be highly responsive to evolving customer needs and develop and deliver healthcare solutions more quickly and cost effectively. In 2010, China’s Premix R&D team was instrumental in the approval and launch of Fluconazole and Levofloxacin IV products, and is developing four other premixed drug formulations specifically for use in China. These high-use molecules in a premixed form provide added convenience for hospital pharmacists and help reduce medication errors.

Advancing Technology for Influenza Vaccination

For more than 40 years, influenza vaccines have been made by growing the selected influenza vaccine strains in hens’ eggs, which often requires four to six months. This has raised several public health concerns given the dependency of both seasonal and pandemic influenza vaccine production on large numbers of suitable eggs and the lengthy production process.

During the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, Baxter supported public health authorities through the development, licensure and delivery of a pandemic vaccine, CELVAPAN H1N1, prepared using Baxter’s novel Vero cell technology. This cell culture-based technology enabled Baxter to develop and complete production of initial commercial batches of pandemic vaccine within 12 weeks of receipt of the virus strain. Based upon the European Medicines Agency (EMA) mock-up licensure of CELVAPAN in early 2009, CELVAPAN H1N1 became the first cell culture-based, non-adjuvanted, preservative-free pandemic influenza vaccine to receive marketing authorization in the European Union and was licensed in October 2009.

Subsequently, Baxter has also extended this technological advantage to seasonal influenza, obtaining licensure in selected European countries for PREFLUCEL, Europe’s first widely available seasonal influenza vaccine prepared using cell culture technology. Not only was PREFLUCEL shown to be tolerable and efficacious in clinical trials, it is free from egg proteins and therefore suitable for adults and the elderly, including those with allergies to eggs. Furthermore, PREFLUCEL is prepared using the natural virus – with an identical protein composition to the virus circulating in nature.

Peritoneal Dialysis

Baxter is the world's leading innovator and supplier of peritoneal dialysis (PD) products for end-stage renal disease (ESRD), or kidney failure. PD is a self-administered therapy that can be managed by patients at home. Evidence shows that PD home therapy is generally less expensive than in-center hemodialysis. It can also offer improvements in certain quality of life aspects, particularly in emerging economies where many people with kidney disease go untreated due to expense and lack of access to dialysis treatment centers. Baxter works with governments to institute adequate reimbursement for PD therapy and strives to make it cost-effective and accessible through local manufacturing, home delivery and product innovation.

Baxter’s Renal Therapy Services (RTS) is a provider of in-center dialysis services in countries such as Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Turkey and Ireland. The clinics provide innovative, high-quality services including pre-dialysis patient management, hemodialysis, PD and follow-up treatment for transplant patients.

At several RTS clinics in Colombia, Baxter has launched a program designed to slow progression of chronic kidney disease (CKD). Patients diagnosed with early-stage CKD work with a multidisciplinary team of nephrologists, nutritionists and social workers and take part in an education program that provides guidance on reducing their risk for high blood pressure and heart disease. Seventy percent of participants improved their blood pressure through the program.

At Baxter’s PD center in Guatemala City, Guatemala – opened in June of 2010 – nephrologists, psychologists, nutritionists as well as specialists in laboratory and home care services provide a comprehensive patient care program to approximately 250 ESRD patients. Participants are also encouraged to take part in the center’s patient training program for the administration of PD therapy.

In China, the Dragonfly Program – a community CKD education and intervention initiative organized by Baxter China and the Beijing Community Health Service Association – has trained hundreds of community doctors in Beijing’s Haidian and Chaoyong districts about CKD and patient care. In 2010, the program introduced a referral system for CKD and ESRD patients at Beijing’s community hospitals, to enable healthcare professionals to identify CKD patients early as well as provide education and proper treatment to people with renal disease. As of the end of 2010, the Dragonfly Program had trained 200 community doctors and identified 1,500 CKD patients from more than 8,000 at-risk individuals.

See Priority Update: Access to Healthcare for more detail.