THE PM360 TRAILBLAZER AWARDS 2010
MEDICAL DEVICE COMPANY OF THE YEAR WINNER

BAXTER

Baxter is focused on the future. It has an impressive commitment to medical innovation. It was well ahead of its peers in understanding the importance of sustainability goals and continues to pursue them aggressively. It is building for the future in emerging healthcare markets. It has a distinguished record of promoting high ethical standards. And it has revealed a sophisticated understanding of the art of creating lasting relationships with patients, as well as readiness to explore new marketing directions. These are the reasons Baxter is the 2010 Trailblazer Medical Device Company of the Year.

Baxter’s commitment to innovation was on display in recession year 2009, when it increased R&D spending by 11% to the highest level in the company’s history, an especially impressive move given its record of past innovation. One example: When the WHO declared H1N1 pandemic in 2009, Baxter’s Vero cell technology enabled them to produce the first commercial vaccine batches 12 weeks after receiving the virus strain, a feat impossible with conventional methods. The result was not merely a technological achievement but patient access of a particularly vital kind.

The company’s capacity to innovate is matched by its capacity to follow through. Its contract manufacturing business, BioPharma Solutions, which provides technical and service leadership for pharmaceutical customers worldwide, won the 2010 Vaccine Industry Excellence Award for Best Contract Manufacture Organization.

When it comes to sustainability goals, Baxter has long been ahead of its time, having just been named Medical Products Industry Leader of the Dow Jones Sustainability Index for the ninth consecutive year. Baxter realized early the business case for sustainability, including attracting high-caliber talent, driving financial savings, and differentiating the company. They calculate an average return of $3 for every dollar invested in environmental initiatives. Baxter is the only U.S. healthcare company recognized in Corporate Knights’ Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations ranking each year since it began in 2005 and was first in healthcare in Newsweek’s 2009 Ranking of Green U.S. Companies.

One place Baxter sees its future is in emerging and rapidly growing markets, where it works to improve healthcare access and provide infrastructure and education. It won Best Employer awards in Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Asia Pacific. It also ranked first among medical device companies in 2010 in Corporate Responsibility Magazine’s 100 Best Corporate Citizens, due in part to its fight against corruption in world markets.

Baxter’s marketing initiatives combine emphasis on long-term relationships with readiness to break new ground. They offer state-of-the-art websites with a rich selection of patient-facing, community-oriented resources for sufferers from the chronic diseases in which they specialize. In 2010 Baxter received the first-ever certification of a medical product by the U.K.’s Carbon Trust, which certifies products with minimal carbon footprints and whose logo figures in a growing U.K. low-carbon consumer movement. The move deftly gained marketing leverage from Baxter’s sustainability efforts and may signal a new future in environmental packaging.

Finally, Baxter also pulled off the marketing coup of the year, thanks to one tough Frenchman. Three months after his kidneys failed and dialysis began, Jean Louis Clemendot sailed solo across the Atlantic last year, thanks to a self-administered therapy called peritoneal dialysis which Baxter developed. Everything he needed—chiefly pouches of specially prepared fluid—was on board. He’s currently circumnavigating the globe, reaping global coverage. He says he’s “on dialysis and as free as a bird.” Now that’s marketing! (For the latest, see his blog www.jeanlouisclemendot.fr or, for an English-translated archival record, www.jeanlouisclemendot.fr/historique.php.) —Bruce Lacey

–NEXT–

2010 ADVERTISING AGENCY OF THE YEAR WINNER

2010 SUPPLIER OF THE YEAR WINNER

2010 BRAND MANAGER OF THE YEAR WINNERS

2010 INITIATIVES OF THE YEAR WINNERS

2010 PM360 TRAILBLAZER AWARDS PANEL OF JUDGES