Product Donations

Baxter donates products to help improve access to healthcare worldwide. In 2010, the company donated and shipped more than $48 million in products (including Baxter's patient assistance programs) to assist people in need in 84 countries (see map). Baxter donates products that recipient organizations have requested specifically, including intravenous (IV) solutions, pharmaceuticals and hemophilia products. Baxter's Global Community Relations team manages the donations process, guided by Baxter's Global Product Donation Policy, which covers areas such as licensing, expiration and dating, accounting and tax laws, and export requirements.

The Global Community Relations team works with supply chain managers and others at Baxter to identify opportunities to donate products, matching available inventory to patient need. In some cases, the company donates excess products that might be classified as hazardous waste if destroyed, which has the added benefit of helping Baxter reduce waste and associated expenses.

During 2010, Baxter continued its major donor partnerships with AmeriCares and Direct Relief International. AmeriCares, an international disaster-relief and humanitarian-aid organization, airlifts critical medicines, medical supplies and other aid to areas suffering humanitarian crises resulting from natural disasters or political strife. Direct Relief International, a non-profit, non-sectarian humanitarian-assistance organization, provides medical assistance to victims of poverty, disaster and civil unrest. In 2010, the Global Community Relations team collaborated with these two organizations – which have complementary missions, yet different focus areas and local partnerships – to develop a yearly product donation plan. This will help ensure that Baxter contributes most needed products to stabilize supply in least developed and developing economies, and that the company’s products are first on the scene following disasters and tragedies.

Responding to Crises in Haiti, India and Pakistan

In 2010, Baxter’s long-standing relationships with these organizations helped facilitate timely, targeted support in response to the January 2010 earthquake in central Haiti. Along with grants from The Baxter International Foundation and employee contributions via Baxter’s Employee Disaster Relief Matching Gift Program, the company’s charitable giving in response to the Haiti earthquake and subsequent cholera outbreak totaled $7.7 million.

In addition, Baxter Latin America partnered with the Dominican Republic Nephrologists Association to donate renal supplies to ensure patients in Haiti continued to receive dialysis treatment.

Strategic shipments from Baxter made in the spring of 2010 positioned AmeriCares and DRI to pull from inventory and provide products valued at approximately $70,000 in support of flood relief efforts in Pakistan and India.

See Priority Update: Access to Healthcare for more detail.

World Federation of Hemophilia Global Alliance for Progress

Baxter also facilitates access to healthcare through support of non-profit organizations such as the World Federation of Hemophilia, an international non-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of people with hemophilia and related bleeding disorders. Baxter is the founding member and lead contributor to the organization's Global Alliance for Progress (GAP), which works to improve the diagnosis and treatment of hemophilia in developing countries. Since its launch in 2003, GAP has diagnosed more than 22,000 patients with bleeding disorders – including 19,000 with hemophilia – in 16 countries, and educated and trained more than 13,000 healthcare professionals, regulators and hemophilia team members.

Through its humanitarian aid partners, the World Federation of Hemophilia and AmeriCares, Baxter has reached those living with hemophilia in underserved countries with much needed factor replacement therapy donations valued at approximately $14 million over the past several years. (See Case Study: Putting a Face on Baxter’s Product Donations.)

Patient Assistance Programs

Additionally, Baxter contributes products through its patient assistance programs, which provide continued access to products when a patient experiences a lapse in insurance coverage or faces other challenges that limit access.

As part of its patient assistance programs Baxter is a long-time supporter of Patient Services, Inc. (PSI), a non-profit organization that provides financial assistance to patients with rare disorders to help them retain their health insurance coverage. Over the last 12 years, Baxter has contributed more than $6 million to PSI's programs that support patients with hemophilia, alpha-1 antitrypsin deficiency (AAT), primary immune disease and protein C deficiency. Through these efforts, along with contributions made by other corporations, PSI assisted more than 850 patients in 2010.

Baxter recently launched the myPN Support program, a patient assistance program in the United States aimed at supporting consumers in need of life-sustaining parenteral nutrition (PN) drug therapy.

Other Initiatives

When healthcare professionals travel overseas to provide charitable medical care to underserved populations, they often work in hospitals and clinics lacking modern surgical suite materials. Baxter's BioSurgery hemostatic and tissue sealant products are some of the most requested Baxter products in these situations, and were donated to 29 medical mission trips in 2010. Additionally, anesthesia products such as Forane (Isoflurane) are often requested. During 2010, there were 63 shipments to 17 countries in support of medical missions through humanitarian aid organization AmeriCares.

The Global Community Relations team also works closely with the Partnership for Quality Medical Donations (PQMD), whose mission is to collaborate with member companies and humanitarian aid organizations that share a commitment to advancing effective drug and medical supply donation practices. In 2010, Baxter used PQMD as a way to benchmark Baxter’s best practices and disaster response services.