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Baxter's (BAX) Vital Edge Program Aids Patient Blood Management

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Baxter International Inc. (BAX - Free Report) recently collaborated with AdventHealth Tampa to develop customized hemostasis strategies that can aid in the latter’s clinical, operational and financial goals. This has been made possible with the help of Baxter’s Vital Edge program.

Notably, Vital Edge is a data-backed, evidence-based intraoperative hemostasis management program that has been created to enable hospitals and health care providers to boost hemostasis utilization practices. These practices make an impact on three interconnected aspects of surgical care — clinical efficiency, operational efficacy and financial performance.

This partnership is likely to strengthen Baxter’s Advanced Surgery segment.

Significance of the Collaboration

It is important to mention here that bleeding during surgery can result in higher complication rates that include surgical revisions and transfusions, thereby leading to higher resource utilization and costs. In this ever-changing environment, patient blood management is an extremely important component when it comes to providing high quality care at a lower cost.




On the back of Vital Edge, Baxter’s Advanced surgery team collaborates with hospitals to detect and educate on opportunities to upgrade usage of hemostatic agents to minimize intraoperative blood loss and product waste, thereby improving outcomes and reducing costs.

In fact, with the help of Vital Edge, AdventHealth Tampa will realize around $0.2 million in annual savings.

Market Prospects

Per a report by MarketsandMarkets, the global patient blood management market is anticipated to be worth $15.3 billion in 2024, witnessing a CAGR of 7.4% during the forecast period (2019-2024). Growing prevalence of blood disorders and higher number of blood donations and blood donors will drive the market during the forecast period.

Recent Developments

In November, Baxter announced the expansion of its sterile fill/finish manufacturing facilities located in Bloomington, IN, which is being jointly funded by Baxter and client investment. Notably, the construction of the planned expansion of the existing facility infrastructure worth $50 million is anticipated to be completed in 2021. For investors’ note, the Bloomington facilities are operated by Baxter’s BioPharma Solutions business.

In the same month, the company attained FDA approval for the Homechoice Claria automated peritoneal dialysis (APD) system with Sharesource connectivity platform. It is worth mentioning here that the clearance comes on the heels of the recent finalization of the End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) Treatment Choices (ETC) payment model, the goal of which is to drastically increase the number of new patients with kidney failure who receive home dialysis and/or organ transplants.

Price Performance

Over the past year, shares of this Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) stock company have lost 4.4% against the industry’s rise of 5.4%.

Stocks to Consider

Some better-ranked stocks from the broader medical space are Merit Medical Systems, Inc. (MMSI - Free Report) , Align Technology, Inc. (ALGN - Free Report) and Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (TMO - Free Report) , each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Merit Medical has a projected long-term earnings growth rate of 12.6%.

Align Technology has an estimated long-term earnings growth rate of 18.3%.

Thermo Fisher has a projected long-term earnings growth rate of 18%.

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