Baxter BioScience to be spun out
Baxter International, an Illinois company that is a major employer in the Conejo Valley, is planning to split itself into two companies.
Baxter officials said March 27 that they will separate the company’s $9 billion-a-year medical products business from the Baxter BioScience unit, which brings in about $6 billion each year in sales for treatments for hemophilia and other bleeding disorders.
Baxter employs 1,600 people between locations in Westlake Village and Thousand Oaks, according to Business Times records.
The corporate headquarters of both new companies will be located in northern Illinois. Robert Parkinson, Baxter’s current CEO, will oversee the medical products company, while Ludwig Hanston, the current president of the BioScience division, will lead the new biopharmaceuticals company, which will be named at a later date.
The deal will need regulatory and shareholder approval and is expected to close in 2015, the company said. Baxter’s shares were up 3.9 percent to $72.80 after the news was announced.
