Baxter International Inc.

What does Baxter own?
Post-divestiture it owns hospital products, pharmaceuticals, and connected care businesses including IV solutions, infusion systems, and the Hillrom device portfolio.

Is Baxter publicly traded?
Yes. It trades on the NYSE under ticker BAX and is an S&P 500 component.

Who founded Baxter?
Donald E. Baxter founded the company in 1931 in Illinois to mass-produce sterile IV solutions.

Where is Baxter headquartered?
The company is headquartered in Deerfield, Illinois, a Chicago suburb.

Who is the CEO of Baxter?
Andrew Hider became CEO in September 2025, succeeding interim CEO Brent Shafer, who became board chair. José Almeida retired in February 2025.

What happened to Baxter's kidney care business?
It was sold to Carlyle Group in January 2025 for $3.8 billion and now operates independently as Vantive.

What does Baxter sell?
IV solutions and systems, infusion pumps, pharmaceuticals including anesthesia, and connected care devices like smart beds and monitors.

Donald E. Baxter founded the company in Glenview, Illinois in 1931, pioneering the mass production of sterile intravenous solutions, the innovation that made modern IV therapy possible at scale.

Through the mid-century Baxter became the dominant US maker of IV systems and expanded into dialysis, blood products, and hospital equipment, becoming one of the country's most important medical suppliers and a Chicago-area institution.

The 1980s-2000s brought major deals: American Hospital Supply in 1985 made it the biggest hospital products company in the country, and the 2015 spin-off of Baxalta separated the biopharma business, which Shire subsequently acquired.

The 2021 Hillrom acquisition for approximately $10.5 billion added connected care devices but strained the balance sheet, driving the subsequent restructuring: the 2023 biopharma solutions sale, the January 2025 Vantive kidney care divestiture, and the leadership change that brought Hider to the CEO role in September 2025.

As a medical products company, Baxter's sustainability work centers on product safety, manufacturing environmental management, and access to essential medicines.

The company reports through standard ESG frameworks on emissions, packaging, and supply chain, with its products' life-sustaining role the core social contribution. No consumer-facing certifications apply at this level.

The 2024 North Cove IV plant hurricane damage, which caused a nationwide saline shortage, was an operational resilience lesson that exposed the concentration risk in critical supply chains.

IV supply crisis: Hurricane Helene's September 2024 damage to the North Cove, North Carolina plant, the largest US IV solution facility, caused nationwide saline shortages and drew scrutiny of supply chain concentration in critical medical supplies.

Product recalls: The company faces periodic recalls on pumps and devices standard for medical device makers, handled through FDA processes, including past infusion pump issues that have drawn regulatory attention.

Restructuring costs: The divestiture program and workforce reductions drew periodic criticism over execution disruption, though the strategic logic is now accepted.