Baxter ($BAX) posted a 1% profit increase in the third quarter, but the company's revenue stayed about flat, as growth in its regenerative medicine business was dragged down by slumping medical device sales.
Baxter reported quarterly net income of $583 million on $3.5 billion in revenue, about $2 million below the same period last year. The company saw revenue growth in most of its biosciences units--including a 16% jump for regenerative medicine--but posted sales declines for its two largest device businesses. Renal device revenue fell 3% to $629 million, and infusion system sales plummeted 16% to $186 million.
Baxter's infusion pumps have long proved problematic for the company, and a 2010 recall of its Colleague and Syndeo devices cost Baxter about $500 million. In August, the company recalled four models of its Automix compound-and-infuse device, getting a Class I label from the FDA over concerns the machine could improperly dose patients and result in injury or death.
However, Baxter wrapped up all activities related to the 2010 recall in Q3, the company said, and it's now marketing the Spectrum "smart" infusion pump, a device it inherited in its $90 million buyout of Sigma International. The Deerfield, IL-based company is also developing a home hemodialysis machine, completing a study of 24 patients and planning to secure a CE mark in 2013.
- read Baxter's release
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