Baxter CFO: Latest Fluid Pump Issue Has 'No Financial Impact'
12 March 2009 - 7:44AM
Dow Jones News
The latest problems with Baxter International Inc.'s (BAX)
"Colleague" intravenous fluid pumps will not have any financial
impact and don't change the timeline for getting them back on the
U.S. market, a company official said Wednesday.
The Deerfield, Ill., company said in a release earlier Wednesday
that it found more problems with the pumps, which were originally
pulled from the market in 2005 amid a host of problems, and are
still not on sale in the U.S.
The Food and Drug Administration also assigned its most severe
recall status to the matter, although Baxter said it can fix
glitches on units in the field without pulling them from
hospitals.
The news weighed on Baxter's shares Wednesday, even though
Colleague has never been a major contributor to sales, and Baxter
hadn't factored a U.S. return into 2009 guidance. Baxter closed
down 5.4% to $48.57.
Robert Davis, the company's chief financial officer, addressed
the Colleague issue while speaking at a Barclays health-care
conference late in the day.
"We are very focused on it - it's the one blemish that we have,"
he said during the event, which was broadcast on the Web. But
"there is no financial impact from the announcement that went out
today."
Baxter hasn't been too specific recently about when Colleague
might return in the U.S. (it's back on the market overseas), and
emergent problems have spoiled the timeline before. But this time
Davis said the timeline for fixing the matter and getting back to
the domestic market remains intact.
The company found three main issues, including a device-related
glitch that causes failure codes and stops the pumps from pumping -
Baxter is working to fix this. It also advised customers regarding
user problems, including the potential for cleaning fluid to cause
short-circuiting and overheating.
-By Jon Kamp, Dow Jones Newswires; 617-654-6728;
jon.kamp@dowjones.com