Baxter to buy Gambro AB

Drug and medical device maker Baxter International plans to buy the privately held Swedish company Gambro AB for about $2.76 billion to broaden its dialysis product portfolio.

Gambro makes dialysis products for patients with acute or chronic kidney disease, and Baxter said it had sales of about $1.6 billion last year.

Baxter International Inc., based in Deerfield, Ill., said dialysis treatment rates are rising by more than 5 percent annually, partly due to growing rates of diabetes and high blood pressure. More than 2 million people globally are on some form of dialysis.

Dialysis involves removing blood from a patient, running it through a machine that cleans out impurities and then returning it to the patient's body. Baxter's medical device division makes products for kidney dialysis and intravenous administration sets to deliver medicines and fluids to patients.

- Associated Press