Drug maker baxter in $2. 76 billion deal to buy sweden's gambro


Drug maker baxter in $2. 76 billion deal to buy sweden's gambro

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Baxter International Inc. in Toronto, Canada. Brent Lewis | Bloomberg | Getty Images Drug and medical device maker BAXTER INTERNATIONAL said it will buy the privately held Swedish company


GAMBRO in a deal valued at about $2.76 billion to broaden its dialysis product portfolio. Gambro makes dialysis products for patients with acute or chronic kidney disease, and Baxter said it


had sales of about $1.6 billion last year. Baxter International, based in Deerfield, Ill., said dialysis treatment rates are rising by more than 5 percent annually, partly due to growing


rates of diabetes and high blood pressure. More than 2 million people globally are on some form of dialysis. Dialysis involves removing blood from a patient, running it through a machine


that cleans out impurities and then returning it to the patient's body. Baxter's medical device division makes products for kidney dialysis and intravenous administration sets to


deliver medicines and fluids to patients. Baxter also has a bioscience division which makes vaccines and high-tech treatments for hemophilia and other bleeding disorders, burns and shock,


immune deficiencies, and other blood-related conditions. Baxter will pay for the deal with a combination of debt and cash generated from overseas operations. It expects the acquisition to


close in the first half of next year. The deal is worth about $4 billion, counting debt. _ The Wall Street Journal_ reported last month that Baxter was negotiating to buy Gambro. Gambro is


owned in part by INVESTOR AB, the Swedish investment group controlled by the Wallenberg family.