Baxter Expanding Device Production

Baxter International Inc. (Deerfield, IL) announced this week that it will invest close to $300 million in expanding a site to increase hemodialysis therapy (HD) product manufacturing, adding multiple production lines and hundreds of jobs by 2016.

The company's Opelika, AL., site will add 230,000 square feet, several production lines and 200 workers by 2016 when new hemodialysis dialyzers lines will begin commercial production, a company release detailed. The company currently employs about 170 people at the facility.

Representatives say the expansion went underway to meet increasing worldwide demand for dialyzers. Nearly two million patients worldwide have end-stage renal disease and must undergo hemodialysis dialyzer therapy. An increasing number of people suffer from diabetes, blood pressure issues and other factors in kidney disease. That means ESRD rates and dialysis treatment is also rising by 6-7% yearly around the world.

Baxter acquired Swedish dialysis company Gambro AB in September 2013. Baxter CEO Robert Parkinson has said the company aims to boost capacity in the dialyzer area to meet demand. The company's two plants are in Hessiga, Germany, and the Alabama location.