Baxter CFO: Latest Fluid Pump Issue Has 'No Financial Impact'

The latest problems with Baxter International Inc.'s (BAX) "Colleague" intravenous fluid pumps will not have any financial impact and don't change the timeline for getting them back on the U.S. market, a company official said Wednesday.

The Deerfield, Ill., company said in a release earlier Wednesday that it found more problems with the pumps, which were originally pulled from the market in 2005 amid a host of problems, and are still not on sale in the U.S.

The Food and Drug Administration also assigned its most severe recall status to the matter, although Baxter said it can fix glitches on units in the field without pulling them from hospitals.

The news weighed on Baxter's shares Wednesday, even though Colleague has never been a major contributor to sales, and Baxter hadn't factored a U.S. return into 2009 guidance. Baxter closed down 5.4% to $48.57.

Robert Davis, the company's chief financial officer, addressed the Colleague issue while speaking at a Barclays health-care conference late in the day.

"We are very focused on it - it's the one blemish that we have," he said during the event, which was broadcast on the Web. But "there is no financial impact from the announcement that went out today."

Baxter hasn't been too specific recently about when Colleague might return in the U.S. (it's back on the market overseas), and emergent problems have spoiled the timeline before. But this time Davis said the timeline for fixing the matter and getting back to the domestic market remains intact.

The company found three main issues, including a device-related glitch that causes failure codes and stops the pumps from pumping - Baxter is working to fix this. It also advised customers regarding user problems, including the potential for cleaning fluid to cause short-circuiting and overheating.

-By Jon Kamp, Dow Jones Newswires; 617-654-6728; [e-mail]