US healthcare products maker Baxter International said today early tests show a fluid used in filters it made may have played a role in the death of at least 33 kidney dialysis patients in Spain, Croatia and Texas.
Baxter said it plans to stop making the filter produced at its plant in Ronneby, Sweden and said it will take a charge of between $100 million and $150 million to cover the cost of discontinuing the product line and other related costs.
Baxter has reported 33 deaths involving kidney patients undergoing dialysis with Baxter filters, or dialyzers. Thirty-one deaths occured in Spain and Croatia, and two in Texas.
Spanish health authorities said there was a clear link between 11 kidney patient deaths in August and blood filters made by Baxter, Spanish state radio reported yesterday.
The A and AF series dialyzers, which are filters that help cleanse blood of toxins in patients suffering kidney failure, were part of Baxter's acquisition of Sweden's Althin Medical AB in March 2000.