Baxter Q3 net income falls amid strong demand for home kidney-care products

Drug and medical-device maker Baxter International reported a 17% rise it its third-quarter medical products sales, a division that includes home renal-care products that are seeing brisk demand. Indeed in September, the Deerfield, Ill.-based company began rationing its peritoneal dialysis solution because demand was outstripping its production capacity.

But those strong medical product sales weren't enough to lift overall Baxter net income for the quarter, which was hurt by business costs associated with its plans to split into two companies, as well as its acquisition of Gambro AB.

Baxter reported third-quarter net income of $468 million, a 14% drop compared with the $544 million recorded in the same period the prior year.

Revenues for the third quarter rose 13% to $4.2 billion from $3.7 billion in the same period the prior year, driven by the strong growth in medical product sales, which reached $2.5 billion in revenue for the quarter. Sales in its BioScience group reached $1.7 billion, up 8% from the same period the prior year.

Nine-month net income stood at $1.5 billion, down 8% compared to $1.7 billion in the same period last year. Nine-month net revenue rose 15% to $12.2 billion compared with $10.6 billion in the same period last year.

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