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Baxter
Corporation For
more than sixty years, Baxter Corporation has been a major presence in the
Canadian health care community. At any given moment in hospitals, clinics
or homes across the country, Baxter’s medical products and services are
improving and saving people's lives. Premature infants receive vital
medications and nutrients from Baxter's intravenous solutions and infusion
pumps; trauma victims receive lifesaving blood and blood components that
have been collected and processed with Baxter's storage and
separation systems; kidney disease patients live vital, active lives with
Baxter's leading dialysis therapies and individuals with inherited blood
disorders, like hemophilia, can live longer, healthier lives using Baxter’s
therapeutic blood proteins.
First incorporated in 1937 as Baxter
Laboratories of Canada, the company began with seven people producing
intravenous solutions in a rented building in Toronto. Today,
the company employs more than eight hundred people
across Canada. The
Canadian headquarters are in Mississauga, Ontario, with regional offices
in Burnaby, British Columbia, and Pointe Claire, Quebec. Award-winning
manufacturing facilities are located in Alliston, Ontario and Sherbrooke,
Quebec. The global headquarters for Baxter International are located in
Deerfield, Illinois. www.Baxter.com
The success of this company can be traced to its
market leadership and manufacturing excellence within three core
businesses: Renal Therapy, Medication Delivery, and BioSciences.
Market Leadership
In 1939, the company introduced the first sterile
vacuum-type blood collection container, making blood-banking practical for
the first time. In 1956, Baxter introduced the first commercially built
artificial kidney machine, making life-saving dialysis therapy a reality
for people suffering from kidney disease. Then in 1966, Baxter introduced
the first commercially produced Factor VIII concentrate to treat
hemophilia. In 1970, the Alliston plant became the first facility in the
world to manufacture a plastic container for IV solutions, eliminating the
safety concerns with respect to glass containers. Other "firsts"
over the years have included the introduction of continuous ambulatory
peritoneal dialysis as an alternative to hemodialysis, the first "needleless"
system for IV therapy to protect health-care workers from needle-stick
accidents and the first automated blood-cell separator, setting a new
standard for the collection of cellular blood components.
With the company investing a million dollars per day
in research and development, they are investing in the future. A future
that includes Baxter researchers working to enhance
the safety of the blood supply with technologies to inactivate pathogens
in collected blood components. A future that includes genetically
engineering animal organs for transplant into humans. A future that
includes new genetically engineered hemoglobin therapeutics and improved
vaccines for the prevention of a variety of infectious diseases.
Manufacturing Excellence
Baxter Corporation prides itself on its
manufacturing excellence. The Baxter plant in
Alliston, Ontario, won the
National Quality Institute’s Canada Award for Excellence, Large
Manufacturing in 1996. Baxter is the f irst company in the health care
sector to ever win this award. In 1997, the Sherbrooke facility was
honoured to receive the "Qualimètre" Award. In 1998, the
Sherbrooke plant was named "Plant of the Year" by the Maison
Régionale de l’Industrie and won the prestigious "Grand Prix
québécois de la qualité" in 1999.
Underlying
the company’s expertise is passion…the passion to advance the
frontiers of medicine. The passion to bring life-saving therapies to
patients. The passion to listen to its customers, and bring them solutions
to the challenges they face everyday.
The company can be reached at:
Baxter Corporation
4 Robert Speck Parkway, Suite 700
Mississauga, Ontario
L4Z 3Y4
Telephone:
(905) 270-1125
1-800-387-8399
http://www.baxter.ca
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