Dive Brief:
- Baxter cut approximately 90 employees from a facility in Marion, North Carolina, that makes IV solutions for hospitals. The cuts, which took place in late January, account for about 3% of the company’s workforce in Marion, a Baxter spokesperson wrote in an emailed statement Monday.
- The North Cove site was hit by Hurricane Helene in 2024, triggering a nationwide shortage of IV fluids. Baxter worked to restore production at the facility over the following months.
- Hospitals took measures to conserve IV fluids during the shortage. Demand is still 10% to 15% lower than pre-hurricane levels, Baxter CFO Joel Grade said in a presentation at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare conference last month.
Dive Insight:
Baxter’s North Cove site made about 60% of the U.S. supply of IV fluids. Demand has recovered since the hurricane, but not as much as Baxter had expected. Grade told investors in an October earnings call that the company expects some level of fluid conservation will likely remain in 2026.
“Our teams are actively, and with urgency, working with our customers to continue to help improve their utilization because this is not an issue of product availability from our perspective,” the CFO added.
When asked about the cuts, a company spokesperson said that Baxter regularly reviews its manufacturing network, which helps the company align production with demand. The company is still committed to the Marion site and the employees who work there, the spokesperson wrote.
The company’s infusion therapies and technologies segment, which includes IV solutions, reported $3.04 billion in sales in the nine months ending in September 2025, roughly flat compared with the year-ago period.
