Pharma Company Baxter International Bucks Trends With 20% Increase in 1Q09 Net Income

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Researched by Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Pharmaceutical company Baxter International Incorporated (NYSE:BAX) (Deerfield, Illinois) recently reported earnings for the first quarter of the 2009 fiscal year. In contrast to many other companies, Baxter reported a year-over-year growth in net income of 20%, moving from $429 million in 1Q08 to $516 million in 1Q09.

"Despite the challenging global macro-economic environment, our first quarter financial results underscore the value of our diversified healthcare model, the solid fundamentals underpinning our portfolio and our ability to drive margin improvement," said Chairman and CEO Robert Parkinson in a conference call regarding the earnings. "While no company including Baxter is immune to the global macro-environment, to date we've not experienced any meaningful impact. We continue to believe that we're well positioned given our geographic reach and the medically necessary nature of our portfolio to deliver improved performance and growth in both the short and the long term."

The increase in net profit comes despite fairly significant negative impact from foreign currency exchange. Worldwide, Baxter's $2.6 billion of sales represented a 2% decline year over year. Excluding the impact of foreign exchange, however, sales increased 6%. Sales within the U.S., representing $1.2 billion of global sales, increased 5%. The company has also increased spending in research and development 12% from last year.

Industrial Info is currently monitoring approximately $20 million of Baxter's projects in the U.S. and Canada, most of which are maintenance projects. The company is scheduled to kick off construction on a warehouse expansion in Hayward, California, later this year. The project involves increasing the existing biologics warehouse and packaging building by 25,000 square feet, as well as providing additional equipment for the facility. Dome Construction (San Francisco, California) is acting as construction manager for the project.

Industrial Info's 2009 Pharmaceutical & Biotech Industry Outlook packages useful, timely and essential information and statistics into one easy-to-use format. Features include upcoming trends, vital plant and project statistics, as well as a capital and maintenance spending analysis derived from our information databases. The Pharmaceutical Tracker - Online Database contains operational plant data, as well as sites under development in the Pharmaceutical and Biotech Industry. Individual active capital and maintenance spending reports spanning North America are also covered within the Pharmaceutical Tracker.

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