Progress MN: Baxter International Inc.

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Business: Develops, manufactures and markets medical devices, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology for people with hemophilia, immune disorders, infectious diseases, kidney disease, trauma and other medical conditions.

Based: Headquarters in Deerfield, Ill.; has facilities in Brooklyn Park, St. Paul, Mankato, Moorhead, Mounds View, St. Cloud and Waite Park.

Founded: 1931

CEO and chairman: Robert L. Parkinson Jr.

Employees: About 61,500

Economic impact: Employs 850 in Minnesota and could add up to 100 more in a recently purchased Brooklyn Park facility. Global sales totaled $15.3 billion, including $6.45 billion from within the United States.

Website: www.baxter.com

A multinational corporation that makes devices and medicine for people with chronic, deadly diseases affects thousands of patients and their loved ones daily. It also affects the communities where it chooses to locate.

Baxter International’s purchase of a 215,000-square-foot biotech plant at 9450 Winnetka Ave. N. in Brooklyn Park from Danish biotechnology company Genmab may generate 100 highly skilled and high-paying jobs.

The company bought the building last year when talks with the city, Gov. Mark Dayton and the state Department of Employment and Economic Development yielded the promise of $5 million from the Minnesota Investment Fund for the purchase and expansion.

While the building will require significant capital investment, it contains valuable machinery and equipment, according to Baxter representative Kellie Hotz. The company must create at least 60 jobs and invest millions in the property before it receives city or state incentives, Hotz said.

“Baxter’s decision to invest in future use and growth of the site has been dependent on the long-term fiscal sustainability of operations and the partnership with the state and community,” said Michael J. Gramer, Ph.D., Baxter’s director of process science and engineering and interim site lead.

Baxter is a veteran developer and manufacturer of medical devices, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology to help people with some of the most challenging illnesses, including hemophilia and kidney disease. The 83-year-old company made the first commercially manufactured intravenous solutions and the first portable kidney dialysis machine.

Its Minnesota presence continues to spread. In September, the company bought Gambro AB, a global med-tech company focused on dialysis products and therapies for patients with acute or chronic kidney disease. That purchase included a facility that employs 60 in Brooklyn Park. The company acquired St. Paul-based Synovis last year for $325 million, employing 190 in its biosurgery operations there.

Baxter already employs 25 in the former Genmab facility in Brooklyn Park and nearly 300 in plasma centers it operates in Mankato, Moorhead, Mounds View, St. Cloud and Waite Park. The company does not break down sales figures by state, but Hotz said Baxter’s total U.S. sales for 2013 were $6.45 billion.