Baxter International 10-K 2020-12-31

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

FORM 10-K

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

(Mark One)

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 2020

OR

For the transition period from __________ to __________

Commission file number 1-4448

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Baxter International Inc.

(Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in its Charter)

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code 224.948.2000

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☐ No ☑

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐ No ☑

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☑ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files) Yes ☑ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management's assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☑

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes ☐ No ☑

The aggregate market value of the voting common equity held by non-affiliates of the registrant as of June 30, 2020 (the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter), based on the per share closing sale price of $86.10 on that date and the assumption for the purpose of this computation only that all of the registrant’s directors and executive officers are affiliates, was approximately $44 billion. The number of shares of the registrant’s common stock, $1.00 par value, outstanding as of January 29, 2021 was 505,103,894.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

Portions of the registrant’s definitive 2021 proxy statement for use in connection with its Annual Meeting of Stockholders expected to be held on May 4, 2021 are incorporated by reference into Part III of this report.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART I

Company Overview

Baxter International Inc., through its subsidiaries, provides a broad portfolio of essential healthcare products, including acute and chronic dialysis therapies; sterile intravenous (IV) solutions; infusion systems and devices; parenteral nutrition therapies; inhaled anesthetics; generic injectable pharmaceuticals; and surgical hemostat and sealant products. These products are used by hospitals, kidney dialysis centers, nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, doctors’ offices and by patients at home under physician supervision. Our global footprint and the critical nature of our products and services play a key role in expanding access to healthcare in emerging and developed countries. As of December 31, 2020, we manufactured products in over 20 countries and sold them in over 100 countries.

Baxter International Inc. was incorporated under Delaware law in 1931. As used in this report, “Baxter International” means Baxter International Inc. and “we", "our” or "us" means Baxter International and its consolidated subsidiaries (after giving effect to the separation and distribution of Baxalta Incorporated (Baxalta) in 2015, as further described below), unless the context otherwise requires.

COVID-19

Our global operations expose us to risks associated with public health crises and epidemics/pandemics, such as the novel strain of coronavirus (COVID-19). COVID-19 has had, and we expect will continue to have, an adverse impact on our operations, supply chains and distribution systems and has increased and we expect will continue to increase our expenses, including as a result of impacts associated with preventive and precautionary measures that we, other businesses and governments are taking. These measures have led to unprecedented restrictions on, disruptions in, and other related impacts on businesses and personal activities. In addition to travel restrictions put in place in early 2020, governments have closed borders, imposed prolonged quarantines and may continue those measures or implement other restrictions and requirements in light of the continuing spread of the pandemic. We expect that these evolving restrictions and requirements, as well as the corresponding need to adapt to new methods of conducting business remotely, will continue to have an adverse effect on our business. For further discussion, refer to Item 1A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Business Segments and Products

We manage our business based on three geographic segments: Americas (North and South America), EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) and APAC (Asia-Pacific).

Each of our segments provides a broad portfolio of essential healthcare products, including acute and chronic dialysis therapies; sterile IV solutions; infusion systems and devices; parenteral nutrition therapies; inhaled anesthetics; generic injectable pharmaceuticals; and surgical hemostat and sealant products.

For financial information about our segments, see Note 16 in Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Sales and Distribution

We have our own direct sales force and also make sales to and through independent distributors, drug wholesalers acting as sales agents and specialty pharmacy or other alternate site providers. In the United States, third parties, such as Cardinal Health, Inc., warehouse and ship a significant portion of our products through their distribution centers. These centers are generally stocked with adequate inventories to facilitate prompt customer service. Sales and distribution methods include frequent contact by sales and customer service representatives, automated communications via various electronic purchasing systems, circulation of catalogs and merchandising bulletins, direct-mail campaigns, trade publication presence and advertising.

Sales are made and products are distributed on a direct basis or through independent distributors or sales agents in more than 100 countries as of December 31, 2020.

International Operations

The majority of our revenues are generated outside of the United States and geographic expansion remains a component of our strategy. Our presence includes operations in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and Canada. We are subject to certain risks inherent in conducting business outside the United States. For more information on these risks, see the information under the captions “Risks Related to Baxter’s Business —We are subject to risks associated with doing business globally” and “—Changes in foreign currency exchange rates and interest rates could have a material adverse effect on our operating results and liquidity” in Item 1A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

For financial information about our foreign and domestic revenues and geographic segment information, see Note 16 in Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. For more information regarding foreign currency exchange risk, refer to the discussion under the caption entitled “Financial Instrument Market Risk” in Item 7 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Contractual Arrangements

Our products are sold through contracts with customers, both within and outside the United States. Some of these contracts have terms of more than one year and place limits on our ability to increase prices. In the case of hospitals, governments and other facilities, these contracts may specify minimum quantities of a particular product or categories of products to be purchased by the customer.

In keeping with the increased emphasis on cost-effectiveness in healthcare delivery, many hospitals and other customers of medical products in the United States have joined group purchasing organizations (GPOs), or formed integrated delivery networks (IDNs), to enhance purchasing power. GPOs and IDNs negotiate pricing arrangements with manufacturers and distributors and the negotiated prices are made available to members. We have purchasing agreements with several of the major GPOs in the United States. GPOs may have agreements with more than one supplier for certain products. Accordingly, in these cases, we face competition from other suppliers even where a customer is a member of a GPO under contract with us. Purchasing power is similarly consolidated in many other countries. For example, public contracting authorities act as the purchasing entities for the hospitals and other customers of medical products in their region and many hospitals and other customers have joined joint procurement entities and buying consortia. The result is that demand for healthcare products is increasingly concentrated across our markets globally.

Raw Materials

Raw materials essential to our business are purchased from numerous suppliers worldwide in the ordinary course of business. Although most of these materials are generally available, we at times may experience shortages of supply. In an effort to manage risk associated with raw materials supply, we work closely with our suppliers to help ensure availability and continuity of supply while maintaining high quality and reliability. We also seek to develop new and alternative sources of supply where beneficial to our overall raw materials procurement strategy.

We are not always able to recover cost increases for raw materials through customer pricing due to contractual limits and market forces. Accordingly, we utilize long-term supply contracts with some suppliers to help maintain continuity of supply and manage the risk of price increases.

In connection with the separation and distribution of Baxalta in 2015, as further described below, we entered into a long-term manufacturing and supply agreement with Baxalta. Baxalta manufactures and supplies us with ARTISS, TISSEEL, FLOSEAL and stand-alone thrombin, on a cost-plus basis, under that manufacturing and supply agreement.

Competition and Healthcare Cost Containment

Our businesses benefit from a number of competitive advantages, including the breadth and depth of our product offerings and our strong relationships with customers, including hospitals and clinics, GPOs, physicians, and patients, many of whom self-administer home-based therapies that we supply. We also benefit from efficiencies and cost advantages resulting from shared manufacturing facilities and the technological advantages of our products.

Although no single company competes with us in all of our businesses, we face substantial competition in each of our segments from international and domestic healthcare and pharmaceutical companies and providers of all sizes, and these competitors often differ across our businesses. In addition, global and regional competitors continue to expand their manufacturing capacity and sales and marketing channels. Competition is primarily focused on cost-effectiveness, price, service, product performance, and technological innovation. There has been increasing consolidation in our customer base and by our competitors, which continues to result in pricing and market pressures.

Global efforts toward healthcare cost containment continue to exert pressure on product pricing. Governments around the world use various mechanisms to control healthcare expenditures, such as price controls, the formation of public contracting authorities, product formularies (lists of recommended or approved products), and competitive tenders which require the submission of a bid to sell products. Sales of our products are dependent, in part, on the availability of reimbursement by government agencies and healthcare programs, as well as insurance companies and other private payers. In the United States, the federal and many state governments have adopted or proposed initiatives relating to Medicaid and other health programs that may limit reimbursement or increase rebates that we and other providers are required to pay to the state. In addition to government regulation, managed care organizations in the United States, which include medical insurance companies, medical plan administrators, health-maintenance organizations, hospital and physician alliances and pharmacy benefit managers, continue to put pressure on the price and usage of healthcare products. Managed care organizations seek to contain healthcare expenditures, and their purchasing strength has been increasing due to their consolidation into fewer, larger organizations and a growing number of enrolled patients. We face similar issues outside of the United States. In Europe and Latin America, for example, the government provides healthcare at low cost to patients, and controls its expenditures by purchasing products through public tenders, collective purchasing, regulating prices, setting reference prices in public tenders or limiting reimbursement or patient access to certain products.

Intellectual Property

Patents and other proprietary rights are essential to our business. We rely on patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, know-how and confidentiality agreements to develop, maintain and strengthen our competitive position. We own a number of patents and trademarks throughout the world and have entered into license arrangements relating to various third-party patents and technologies. Products manufactured by us are sold primarily under our own trademarks and trade names. Some products distributed by us are sold under our trade names, while others are sold under trade names owned by our suppliers or partners. Trade secret protection of unpatented confidential and proprietary information is also important to us. We maintain certain details about our processes, products and technology as trade secrets and generally require employees, consultants, and business partners to enter into confidentiality agreements. These agreements may be breached and we may not have adequate remedies for any breach. In addition, our trade secrets may otherwise become known or be independently discovered by competitors. To the extent that our employees, consultants, and business partners use intellectual property owned by others in their work for us, disputes may arise as to the rights in related or resulting know-how and inventions.

Our policy is to protect our products and technology through patents and trademarks on a worldwide basis. This protection is sought in a manner that balances the cost of such protection against obtaining the greatest value for us. We also recognize the need to promote the enforcement of our patents and trademarks and take commercially reasonable steps to enforce our patents and trademarks around the world against potential infringers, including judicial or administrative action where appropriate.

We operate in an industry susceptible to significant patent litigation. At any given time, we are involved as either a plaintiff or defendant in a number of patent infringement and other intellectual property-related actions. Such litigation can result in significant royalty or other payments or result in injunctions that can prevent the sale of products. For more information on patent and other litigation, see Note 7 in Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Research and Development

Our investment in research and development (R&D), consistent with our portfolio optimization and capital allocation strategies, helps fuel our future growth and our ability to remain competitive in each of our product categories. Accordingly, we continue to focus our investment on select R&D programs to enhance future growth through clinical differentiation. Expenditures for our R&D activities were $521 million in 2020, $595 million in 2019, and $654 million in 2018. These expenditures include costs associated with R&D activities performed at our R&D centers located

around the world, which include facilities in Belgium, Sweden, India, Italy, Germany, China, Japan and the United States, as well as in-licensing, milestone and reimbursement payments made to partners for R&D work performed at non-Baxter locations.

For more information on our R&D activities, refer to the discussion under the caption entitled “Strategic Objectives” in Item 7 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Quality Management

Our continued success depends upon the quality of our products. Quality management plays an essential role in determining and meeting customer requirements, helping to prevent defects, facilitating continuous improvement of our processes, products and services, and assuring the safety and efficacy of our products. Our quality system enables the design, development, manufacturing, packaging, sterilization, handling, distribution and labeling of our products to ensure that they conform to customer requirements. In order to consistently improve the effectiveness and efficiency of our quality system, various measurement, monitoring and analysis methods, such as management reviews and internal, external and vendor audits, are employed at local and central levels.

Each product that we market is required to meet specific quality standards, both in packaging and in product integrity and quality. If any of those is determined to be compromised at any time, we endeavor to take corrective and preventive actions designed to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and to meet customer expectations. For more information on corrective actions taken by us, refer to the discussion under the caption entitled “Certain Regulatory Matters” in Item 7 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Government Regulation

Our operations and many of the products manufactured or sold by us are subject to extensive regulation by numerous government agencies, both within and outside the United States. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the United States, the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in Europe, the China Food and Drug Administration (CFDA) in China and other government agencies, inside and outside of the United States, administer requirements covering the testing, safety, effectiveness, manufacturing, labeling, promotion and advertising, distribution and post-market surveillance of our products. We must obtain specific approval from FDA and non-U.S. regulatory authorities before we can market and sell most of our products in a particular country. Even after we obtain regulatory approval to market a product, the product and our manufacturing processes and quality systems are subject to continued review by FDA and other regulatory authorities globally, including additional 510(k) and other regulatory submissions, and approvals or the time needed to secure approvals are not certain. State agencies in the United States also regulate our facilities, operations, employees, products and services within their respective states. We, along with our facilities, are subject to periodic inspections and possible administrative and legal actions by FDA and other regulatory agencies inside and outside the United States. Such actions may include warning letters, product recalls or seizures, monetary sanctions, injunctions to halt the manufacture and distribution of products, civil or criminal sanctions, refusal of a government to grant approvals or licenses, restrictions on operations or withdrawal of existing approvals and licenses. As situations require, we take steps to ensure safety and efficacy of our products, such as removing products found not to meet applicable requirements from the market and improving the effectiveness of quality systems. For more information on compliance actions taken by us, refer to the discussion under the caption entitled “Certain Regulatory Matters” in Item 7 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

We are also subject to various laws inside and outside the United States concerning our relationships with healthcare professionals and government officials, price reporting and regulation, the promotion, sales and marketing of our products and services, the importation and exportation of products, the operation of our facilities and distribution of products. In the United States, we are subject to the oversight of FDA, Office of the Inspector General within the Department of Health and Human Services (OIG), the Center for Medicare/Medicaid Services (CMS), the Department of Justice (DOJ), Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Defense and Customs and Border Protection in addition to others. We supply products and services to healthcare providers that are reimbursed by federally funded programs such as Medicare. As a result, our activities are subject to regulation by CMS and enforcement by OIG and DOJ. In each jurisdiction outside the United States, our activities are subject to regulation by government agencies including the EMA in Europe, CFDA in China and other agencies in other jurisdictions. Many of the agencies enforcing these laws have increased their enforcement activities with respect to healthcare companies in recent years. These actions appear to be part of a general trend toward increased enforcement activity globally.

Our operations involve the use of substances regulated under environmental laws, primarily in manufacturing and sterilization processes. Our environmental policies require compliance with all applicable environmental regulations and contemplate, among other things, appropriate capital expenditures for environmental protection. For example, we made $10 million of capital expenditures in 2020 related to a new ethylene oxide emissions control system at our Mountain Home, Arkansas facility. The new system is expected to be completed in 2022 and we currently expect to incur an additional $40 million of capital expenditures related to this project.

Separation of Baxalta

On July 1, 2015, we completed the distribution of approximately 80.5% of the outstanding common stock of Baxalta to our stockholders (the Distribution). The Distribution was made to our stockholders of record as of the close of business on June 17, 2015 (the Record Date), who received one share of Baxalta common stock for each of our shares held as of the Record Date. As a result of the distribution, Baxalta became an independent public company.

In 2016, we disposed of our remaining 19.5% interest in Baxalta (Retained Shares) through a series of transactions, including debt-for-equity exchanges, an equity-for-equity exchange and a contribution to our U.S. pension plan (Retained Shares Transactions). As a result of these transactions, we extinguished approximately $3.65 billion of our indebtedness, repurchased 11,526,638 of our shares and contributed 17,145,570 Baxalta shares to our U.S. pension plan. On June 3, 2016, Baxalta became a wholly-owned subsidiary of Shire plc (Shire). In January 2019, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (Takeda) acquired Shire.

As a result of the separation, the consolidated statements of income, consolidated balance sheets, consolidated statements of cash flow, and related financial information reflect Baxalta’s operations, assets and liabilities, and cash flows as discontinued operations for all periods presented.

Human Capital Management

As of December 31, 2020, we employed approximately 50,000 people globally, with approximately 13,000 employees in the United States and approximately 37,000 employees outside of the Unites States. Our employees are our most important assets and set the foundation for our ability to achieve our strategic objectives. All of our employees contribute to our success and, in particular, the employees in our manufacturing, sales, R&D and quality assurance departments are instrumental in driving operational execution and strong financial performance, advancing innovation and maintaining a strong quality and compliance program.

The success and growth of our business depends in large part on our ability to attract, retain and develop a diverse population of talented and high-performing employees at all levels of our organization, including the individuals who comprise our global workforce as well as executive officers and other key personnel. To succeed in a competitive labor market, we have developed recruitment and retention strategies, objectives and measures that we focus on as part of the overall management of our business. These strategies, objectives and measures form our human capital management framework and are advanced through the following programs, policies and initiatives:

• Competitive Pay and Benefits. Our compensation programs are designed to align the compensation of our employees with our performance and to provide the proper incentives to attract, retain and motivate employees to achieve superior results. The structure of our compensation programs balances incentive earnings for both short-term and long-term performance.

• Activating Change Today (ACT). Building on our strong diversity and inclusion platform, our senior leadership is working in close collaboration with the Baxter Black Alliance business resource group and colleagues from across the company on a multidimensional program to advance inclusion and racial justice. The ACT initiative is focused on driving results across four key areas – Workforce, Workplace, Community and Marketplace – encompassing employees, external stakeholders, and the markets and communities we serve.

• Health and Safety. Health and safety are firmly rooted across our global footprint. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic and related mitigation measures, we implemented changes in our business in 2020 in an effort to better protect our employees and customers, and to support appropriate health and safety protocols. For example, we installed physical barriers between employees in production facilities, implemented extensive cleaning and sanitation processes for both production and office administration spaces and implemented broad work-from-home initiatives for employees in our administrative functions. While our essential workers (production and field service employees) have continued to work at our facilities and provide vital service to our customers, most employees in our administrative functions have effectively

worked remotely since mid-March. During 2020, we paid incremental non-recurring special compensation bonuses to our essential workers.

• Recruitment, Training and Development. We use recruitment vehicles to attract diverse talent to our organization and we invest in learning opportunities that foster a growth mindset. Our formal offerings include a tuition reimbursement program, an e-learning platform known as BaxU and virtual workshops that support our culture, strategy and the development of crucial skills. To measure the impact of the investments we make in our people, and to help us consistently improve our human resources programs, we regularly conduct anonymous surveys of our global workforce to seek feedback on a variety of topics including confidence in our leadership, competitiveness of our compensation and benefits packages, career growth opportunities and improvements on how we can make our company an employer of choice. Administered and analyzed by an independent third-party, the survey results are reviewed by our senior leaders, which include our executive officers. The results of this engagement survey are also shared with individual managers, who are then tasked with taking action based on their employees’ anonymous feedback (both quantitative and qualitative). By paying close attention to the results both at an aggregate enterprise level as well as at a department/business/work group level, we have been able to enhance our culture of respect, help educate employees more effectively about our benefits offerings as well as our learning and development opportunities and further improve our communications content, mechanisms and frequency.

Available Information

We make available free of charge on our website at www.baxter.com our Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, and amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (Exchange Act), as soon as reasonably practicable after electronically filing or furnishing such material with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These reports are also available free of charge via EDGAR through the Securities and Exchange Commission website (www.sec.gov). In addition, our Corporate Governance Guidelines, Code of Conduct, and the charters for the committees of our Board of Directors are available on our website at www.baxter.com under “About Baxter—About us — Governance.” All the foregoing materials will be made available to stockholders in print upon request by writing to: Corporate Secretary, Baxter International Inc., One Baxter Parkway, Deerfield, Illinois 60015. Information contained on our website shall not be deemed incorporated into, or to be a part of, this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

In addition to the other information in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, stockholders or prospective investors should carefully consider the following risk factors. If any of the events described below occurs, our business, financial condition, results of operations, future growth prospects and stock price could suffer.

Risks Related to the COVID-19 Pandemic

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have had, and we expect will continue to have, a material adverse effect on our business. The nature and extent of future impacts are uncertain and unpredictable.

Our global operations expose us to risks associated with public health crises, including epidemics and pandemics, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 has had, and we expect will continue to have, an adverse impact on our operations, supply chains and distribution systems and has increased and will continue to increase our expenses, including the impact associated with preventive and precautionary measures that we, other businesses and governments are taking. These measures have led to unprecedented restrictions on, disruptions in, and other related impacts on businesses and personal activities. In addition to travel restrictions put in place in early 2020, governments have closed borders, imposed prolonged quarantines and may continue those measures or implement other restrictions and requirements in light of the continuing spread of the pandemic. We expect that these evolving restrictions and requirements, as well as the corresponding need to adapt to new methods of conducting business remotely, will continue to have an adverse effect on our business. Risks associated with COVID-19 include, but are not limited to, the following:

• We have experienced, and expect to continue to experience, significant and unpredictable reductions or increases in demand for certain of our products as healthcare customers re-prioritize the treatment of

patients. Some of our products are particularly sensitive to reductions in elective medical procedures, and, as hospital systems prioritize treatment of COVID-19 patients and otherwise comply with government guidelines, many of those procedures have been suspended or postponed in our principal markets. In the second, third and fourth quarters of 2020, this resulted in lower levels of general hospital admissions and elective surgery volumes in those markets, which negatively impacted the demand for certain of our products. It is not possible to predict the timing of a broad resumption of elective medical procedures. If patients and hospital systems continue to de-prioritize, delay or cancel these procedures, our business, financial condition and results of operations would continue to be negatively affected.

• A significant number of our suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and vendors have been adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, including with respect to the ability of their employees to get to their places of work and maintain the continuity of their on-site operations. These impacts could impair our ability to move our products through distribution channels to end customers. Any delay or shortage in the supply of components or materials or other operational or logistical challenges may result in our inability to satisfy consumer demand for our products in a timely manner or at all, which could harm our reputation, future sales and profitability. For example, we have experienced and expect to continue to experience supply constraints for amino acid raw materials used in our parenteral nutrition products, as such materials are also being used to produce COVID-19 vaccines.

• We could experience a loss of sales and profitability due to delayed payments, reduced demand or insolvency of healthcare professionals, hospitals and other customers, and suppliers and vendors facing liquidity or other financial issues. These liquidity or other financial issues could be exacerbated if prolonged high levels of unemployment or loss of insurance coverage impact patients’ ability to access treatments that use our products and services.

• COVID-19 could adversely impact our ability to retain key employees and the continued service and availability of skilled personnel necessary to run our operations, including members of our management, as well as the ability of our suppliers, manufacturers, distributors and vendors to retain their key employees. To the extent our management or other personnel are impacted in significant numbers by COVID-19 and are not available to perform their professional duties, we could experience delays in, or the suspension of, our manufacturing operations, research and development activities and other functions.

• We face increased operational challenges as we continue to take measures to support and protect employee health and safety, including through office closures and work from home policies. For example, remote working arrangements heighten our risks associated with information technology systems and networks, including cyber-attacks, computer viruses, malicious software, security breaches, and telecommunication failures, both for systems and networks we control directly and for those that employees and third-party developers rely on to work remotely. Any failure to prevent or mitigate security breaches or cyber risks or detect, or respond adequately to, a security breach or cyber risk, or any other disruptions to our information technology systems and networks (as a result of remote working arrangements or otherwise), can have adverse effects on our business and cause reputational and financial harm. These risks are particularly heightened due to COVID‑19 as cybercriminals attempt to profit from the disruptions caused by the uncertain environment.

• COVID-19 and related impacts have affected and may further affect the global economy and capital markets worldwide, which, among other consequences, may restrict our access to capital, increase financing costs, adversely affect our liquidity, the perceptions of our creditworthiness, and our ability to complete acquisitions, and increase volatility in foreign currency exchange rates.

The extent of the impact from the pandemic depends on future developments that cannot be predicted at this time, such as the severity and duration of the pandemic (including of related resurgences and future mutations or outbreaks of related strains of the virus); the extent and effectiveness of containment efforts, including the effectiveness and acceptance of any vaccines for COVID-19; and the direct and indirect impact of the pandemic on our employees, customers, counterparties, service providers and regulators, as well as other market participants. Any of these and other impacts of the pandemic could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations. Finally, to the extent COVID-19 adversely affects our operations and global economic conditions more generally, many of the other risks described in this “Risk Factors” section may be heightened.

Risks Related to Our Ability to Grow Our Business

If we are unable to successfully introduce new products or fail to keep pace with advances in technology, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be adversely affected.

We need to successfully introduce new products to achieve our strategic business objectives. Product development requires substantial investment and there is inherent risk in the R&D process. A successful product development process depends on many factors, including our ability to properly anticipate and satisfy customer needs, adapt to new technologies, obtain regulatory approvals on a timely basis, demonstrate satisfactory clinical results, manufacture products in an economical and timely manner and differentiate our products from those of our competitors. If we cannot successfully introduce new products or adapt to changing technologies, our products may be

Showing the first 8K of 69K characters. Open the full section

None.

Our corporate offices are owned and located at One Baxter Parkway, Deerfield, Illinois 60015.

We own or have long-term leases on all of our manufacturing facilities. The location of the principal manufacturing facilities of each of our geographic segments are listed below:

(1)Includes both owned and leased facilities.

(2)We own the facility located at Woodlands, Singapore and lease the property upon which it rests.

We also own or operate shared distribution facilities throughout the world. In the United States and Puerto Rico, there are six shared distribution facilities with the principal facilities located in Memphis, Tennessee; Cataño, Puerto Rico; North Cove, North Carolina; and Round Lake, Illinois. Internationally, we have more than 100 shared distribution facilities located in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, Ecuador, France, Germany, Greece, Guatemala, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, Panama, the Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom.

We continually evaluate our plants and production lines and believe that our current facilities plus any planned expansions are generally sufficient to meet our expected needs and expected near-term growth. Expansion projects and facility closings will be undertaken as necessary in response to market needs.

Incorporated by reference to Note 7 in Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Not Applicable.

Executive Officers of the Registrant

As of February 11, 2021, the following serve as Baxter’s executive officers:

José E. Almeida, age 58, is Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, having served in that capacity since January 2016. He began serving as an executive officer of the company in October 2015. He served as Senior Advisor with The Carlyle Group from May 2015 until October 2015. Previously, he served as the Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Covidien plc (Covidien) from March 2012 to January 2015, prior to Medtronic plc’s (Medtronic) acquisition of Covidien, and President and Chief Executive Officer of Covidien from July 2011 to March 2012. Mr. Almeida served in other executive roles with Covidien (formerly Tyco Healthcare (Tyco)) between April 2004 and June 2011. Mr. Almeida is a member of the Board of Directors of Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc.

Giuseppe Accogli, age 50, is Senior Vice President and President, Americas. Prior to his current role, Mr. Accogli served as Senior Vice President and President, Global Businesses, from 2017 to 2019. He also served as Corporate Vice President and President, Renal from 2016 to 2017 and as Head of the U.S. region for Baxter’s Renal business from 2015 to 2016. Mr. Accogli joined Baxter in 2007 as Renal business unit Director in Italy, and assumed positions of increasing responsibility with the Renal business in Europe, including Head of the EMEA region for Renal from 2013 to 2015. Previously he worked as a Business Unit Manager and Sales and Marketing Manager for Medtronic plc in Italy, and in several sales, product and marketing roles for Tyco and then Covidien in Italy and EMEA. Mr. Accogli has served as a director to AdvaMed, an American medical device trade association, since September 25, 2019.

James Borzi, age 58, is Senior Vice President, Chief Supply Chain Officer. He joined Baxter in August 2020 from GE Healthcare, where he served as Vice President, Chief Supply Chain Officer from 2019 to 2020. Prior to joining GE Healthcare, he spent five years with Becton Dickinson (BD) in various manufacturing operations leadership roles; his last role with BD was Executive Vice President of Global Operations and Chief Supply Chain Officer. Earlier in his career, he was Senior Vice President of Operations & Technology at Hydro Aluminum and Executive Vice President of Worldwide Operations at Lennox International. Prior to that, he was the Chief Operating Officer at AEES and Senior Vice President of Americas Operations at Alcoa.

Cristiano Franzi, age 58, is Senior Vice President and President, EMEA. Mr. Franzi joined Baxter in September 2017 from Medtronic, where he served as Vice President and President, Minimally Invasive Therapies Group EMEA from 2015 to August 2017. He served as President EMEA at Covidien prior to Medtronic’s acquisition of Covidien. He joined Covidien in 2009 and held roles of increasing responsibility during his tenure. He held a number of commercial and functional roles across Europe, the Middle East and Africa at ev3 Endovascular, Inc., Boston Scientific Corporation and Becton, Dickinson & Co. earlier in his career. He served as a member of the board of Eucomed Medical Technology from 2013 to 2015 and again from 2018 to 2019.

Andrew Frye, age 55, is Senior Vice President and President, APAC. Mr. Frye joined Baxter in 2017 from DKSH Holdings Ltd., where he served as Global Head of Healthcare from 2015 to 2017. In that role, he oversaw a portfolio of pharmaceuticals, over-the-counter and device products across 13 countries. Previously, he served as Vice President of Business Development from 2011 to 2014 for DKSH Healthcare. Earlier in his career, he held a number of commercial roles with increasing responsibility at Abbott Laboratories’ Pharmaceutical and Nutrition divisions.

Jacqueline Kunzler, Ph.D., age 55, is Senior Vice President and Chief Quality Officer. Ms. Kunzler joined Baxter in 1993 and has served in roles of increasing responsibility across Baxter’s research & development, international marketing, and quality organizations, most recently as Senior Vice President, Chief Quality Officer.

Sean Martin, age 58, is Senior Vice President and General Counsel. Mr. Martin joined Baxter in 2017 from Apollo Education Group, Inc., where he served as Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary from 2010 to 2017. Previously, he served as Assistant Secretary (2010), Vice President of Corporate Law (2009 to 2010) and Vice President of Commercial Law (2005 to 2009) for Amgen Inc. He also served as Vice President and Deputy General Counsel at Fresenius Medical Care North America from 2000 to 2005. Mr. Martin was a Partner at the law firm Foley & Lardner LLP from 1998 to 2000 and served eight years as Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.

Jeanne K. Mason, Ph.D., age 65, is Senior Vice President, Human Resources. Ms. Mason joined Baxter in 2006 from GE Insurance Solutions, a primary insurance and reinsurance business, where she was responsible for global human resource functions. Ms. Mason began her career with General Electric (GE) in 1988 after serving with the U.S. General Accounting Office in Washington, D.C. Her GE experience included leadership roles in Europe for GE Information Services and GE Capital Real Estate. She is a member of the Board of Directors of Family Service of Lake County and is a member of the Executive Advisory Council for the Chicago Chapter of National Association of African Americans in Human Resources.

James K. Saccaro, age 48, is Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. Mr. Saccaro was Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Hill-Rom Corporation prior to rejoining Baxter in 2014. He originally joined the company in 2002 as Manager of Strategy for the company’s BioScience business, and over the years assumed positions of increasing responsibility, including Vice President of Financial Planning, Vice President of Finance for the company’s operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and Corporate Vice President and Treasurer. He previously held strategy and business development positions at Clear Channel Communications and the Walt Disney Company.

All executive officers hold office until the next annual election of officers and until their respective successors are elected and qualified.

PART II

Issuer Purchases of Equity Securities

The following table includes information about our common stock repurchases during the three-month period ended December 31, 2020.

(1)On July 25, 2012, we announced that our Board of Directors authorized us to repurchase up to $2.0 billion of our common stock on the open market or in private transactions. The Board of Directors increased this authority by $1.5 billion in each of November 2016 and February 2018, by an additional $2.0 billion in November 2018 and by an additional $1.5 billion in October 2020. During the fourth quarter of 2020, we repurchased approximately 6.3 million shares for $500 million in cash pursuant to this authority through a Rule 10b5-1 purchase plan. The remaining authorization under this program totaled approximately $1.9 billion at December 31, 2020. This program does not have an expiration date.

Market Information and Holders of our Common Stock

Our common stock is listed on the New York, Chicago and SIX Swiss stock exchanges. The New York Stock Exchange is the principal market on which our common stock is traded under the symbol “BAX”. As of January 29, 2021, there were 22,017 holders of record of our common stock.

Performance Graph

The following graph compares the change in our cumulative total stockholder return (including reinvested dividends) on our common stock with the Standard & Poor’s 500 Composite Index and the Standard & Poor’s 500 Health Care Index over the past five years.

The following selected consolidated financial data should be read in conjunction with our consolidated financial statements and the accompanying notes thereto in Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K, and the information contained in Item 7, Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

1.Income from continuing operations for the year ended December 31, 2019 included a pre-tax charge of $755 million ($568 million, or $1.09 per diluted share, on an after-tax basis) related to the annuitization of a portion of our U.S. pension plan.

2.Income from continuing operations for the year ended December 31, 2016 included pre-tax net realized gains of $4.4 billion ($4.4 billion, or $8.07 per diluted share, on an after-tax basis) related to the disposition of our formerly retained shares in Baxalta (Baxalta Retained Shares).

The following commentary should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes.

EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW

Description of the Company and Business Segments

We manage our business based on three geographic segments: Americas (North and South America), EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) and APAC (Asia-Pacific). Each of our segments provides a broad portfolio of essential healthcare products including acute and chronic dialysis therapies; sterile IV solutions; infusion systems and devices; parenteral nutrition therapies; inhaled anesthetics; generic injectable pharmaceuticals; and surgical hemostat and sealant products. These products are used by hospitals, kidney dialysis centers, nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, doctors’ offices and patients at home under physician supervision. Our global footprint and the critical nature of our products and services play a key role in expanding access to healthcare in emerging and developed countries.

For financial information about our segments, see Note 16 in Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Recent Business Combinations and Asset Acquisitions

Seprafilm Adhesion Barrier

In February 2020, we completed the acquisition of the product rights to Seprafilm Adhesion Barrier (Seprafilm) from Sanofi for approximately $342 million in cash. Seprafilm is indicated for use in patients undergoing abdominal or pelvic laparotomy as an adjunct intended to reduce the incidence, extent and severity of postoperative adhesions between the abdominal wall and the underlying viscera such as omentum, small bowel, bladder, and stomach, and between the uterus and surrounding structures such as tubes and ovaries, large bowel, and bladder. Refer to Note 2 in Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information regarding the acquisition of Seprafilm.

Cheetah Medical

In October 2019, we acquired 100 percent of Cheetah Medical, Inc. (Cheetah) for total cash consideration of $188 million, net of cash acquired, with the potential for additional cash consideration, up to $40 million, based on clinical and commercial milestones for which the acquisition date fair value was $18 million. Cheetah is a leading provider of hemodynamic monitoring technologies. Refer to Note 2 in Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information regarding the acquisition of Cheetah.

Recothrom and Preveleak

In March 2018, we acquired two hemostat and sealant products from Mallinckrodt plc: Recothrom Thrombin topical (Recombinant), the first and only stand-alone recombinant thrombin, and Preveleak Surgical Sealant, which is used in vascular reconstruction. The purchase price included an upfront payment of approximately $163 million and potential contingent payments in the future. Refer to Note 2 in Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for additional information regarding the acquisition of the Recothrom and Preveleak products.

Transderm Scop

In February 2021, we agreed to acquire the rights to Transderm Scop from subsidiaries of GlaxoSmithKline for an upfront purchase price of $55 million plus the cost of acquired inventory and the potential for additional cash consideration of $30 million based upon a successful technology transfer by a specified date. We currently sell this product under a distribution license to the U.S. institutional market. Transderm Scop is indicated for post-operative nausea and vomiting in the U.S. and motion sickness in European markets. We expect the transaction to close late in the first quarter or early in the second quarter of 2021, subject to the satisfaction of closing conditions.

Caelyx and Doxil

In December 2020, we agreed to acquire the rights to Caelyx and Doxil, the branded versions of liposomal doxorubicin, from a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson for specified territories outside of the U.S for $325 million. We previously acquired the U.S. rights to this product in 2019. Liposomal doxorubicin is a chemotherapy medicine used

to treat various types of cancer. We expect the transaction to close late in the first quarter or early in the second quarter of 2021, subject to the satisfaction of regulatory approvals and other closing conditions.

Financial Results

Our global net sales totaled $11.7 billion in 2020, an increase of 3% over 2019 on both a reported and constant currency basis. International sales totaled $6.8 billion in 2020, an increase of 4% compared to 2019 on a reported basis and 5% on a constant currency basis. Sales in the United States totaled $4.9 billion in 2020, an increase of 1% compared to 2019. Refer to the Net Sales discussion in the Results of Operations section below for more information related to changes in net sales on a constant currency basis.

Our income from continuing operations totaled $1.1 billion, or $2.13 per diluted share, in 2020. Income from continuing operations in 2020 included special items which resulted in a net decrease to income from continuing operations of $495 million, or $0.96 per diluted share. Our special items are discussed in the Results of Operations section below.

Our financial results included R&D expenses totaling $521 million in 2020, which reflects our focus on balancing investments to support our new product pipeline with efforts to optimize overall R&D spending.

Our financial position remains strong, with operating cash flows from continuing operations totaling $1.9 billion in 2020. We have continued to execute on our disciplined capital allocation framework, which is designed to optimize stockholder value creation through reinvestment in our businesses, dividends and share repurchases, as well as acquisitions and other business development initiatives as discussed in the Strategic Objectives section below.

Capital expenditures totaled $709 million in 2020 as we continue to invest across our businesses to support future growth, including additional investments in support of new and existing product capacity expansions. Our investments in capital expenditures in 2020 were focused on projects that improve production efficiency and enhance manufacturing capabilities to support our strategy of geographic expansion with select investments in growing markets.

We also continued to return value to our stockholders in the form of dividends. During 2020, we paid cash dividends to our stockholders totaling $473 million. Additionally, in 2020 we repurchased 6.3 million shares through cash repurchases pursuant to a Rule 10b5-1 repurchase plan. For information on our share repurchase plans, see Note 8 in Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Strategic Objectives

We continue to focus on several key objectives to successfully execute our long-term strategy to achieve sustainable growth and deliver enhanced stockholder value. Our diversified and broad portfolio of medical products that treat life-threatening acute or chronic conditions and our global presence are core components of our strategy to achieve these objectives. We are focused on three strategic factors as part of our pursuit of industry leading performance: optimizing our core portfolio globally; operational excellence focused on streamlining our cost structure and enhancing operational efficiency; and maintaining a disciplined and balanced approach to capital allocation.

Optimizing the Core Portfolio Globally

Our global product portfolio optimization strategy identifies products that we believe to have characteristics of core growth, products that we expect to provide us with a core return on capital, products that we intend to maintain or manage differently and products that we consider to be strategic bets. For products with core growth characteristics, we look to invest for long-term, higher margin growth. For products that we expect to generate a core return on capital, we seek to optimize our return on investment and to maintain or enhance our market position. For products that we intend to

Showing the first 8K of 101K characters. Open the full section

Incorporated by reference to the section entitled “Financial Instrument Market Risk” in “Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations” in Item 7 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME

The accompanying notes are an integral part of these consolidated financial statements.

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CHANGES IN EQUITY

Showing the first 8K of 227K characters. Open the full section

None.

Evaluation of Disclosure Controls and Procedures

We have established disclosure controls and procedures that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed by us in the reports that we file or submit under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the Exchange Act) is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the rules and forms of the SEC, and that such information is communicated to our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure. Our management, with the participation of our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, has evaluated the effectiveness of our disclosure controls and procedures (as defined in Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e) under the Exchange Act) as of December 31, 2020. Based on that evaluation, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were effective as of December 31, 2020.

Remediation of Material Weakness

As previously reported in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, we identified a material weakness over the accounting for certain foreign exchange gains and losses. Specifically, we did not have controls in place to monitor and quantify the difference between the foreign exchange gains and losses that we reported and the foreign exchange gains and losses that we would have reported using exchange rates determined in accordance with U.S. GAAP. Additionally, our policies and controls related to approvals and monitoring of intra-company transactions were insufficient to prevent or detect intra-company transactions undertaken solely for the purpose of generating foreign exchange gains or avoiding losses under our historical exchange rate convention. This material weakness resulted in misstatements that were corrected in the restatement included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019.

Due to the actions taken by us to implement new controls and procedures, management has concluded that this material weakness has been remediated as of December 31, 2020. The actions we took to remediate the material weakness were as follows:

• Exchange Rate Policy – We discontinued the use of our historical exchange rate convention and are using the exchange rates determined in accordance with U.S. GAAP for purposes of measuring foreign currency transactions and remeasuring monetary assets and liabilities denominated in a foreign currency.

• Automated Feed – We implemented an automated feed that extracts foreign exchange rates on a daily basis from a recognized third-party exchange rate source.

• Daily Rate Comparison – We implemented a daily rate comparison control that extracts foreign exchange rates from (a) a third-party exchange rate source, (b) our treasury application, and (c) our enterprise resource planning (ERP) system and compares those rates in order to identify any potential differences and provide assurance that the correct rates were captured and are being used in our financial systems.

• Intra-company Transaction Approvals – We updated our policies to require additional approvals of intra-company transactions and implemented a requirement that such transactions be supported by a documented business purpose.

• Personnel - We made personnel changes including hiring a new treasurer from outside Baxter with more than thirty years of treasury experience and responsibility, including at four publicly traded companies. We have also hired another experienced treasury professional in a newly created director role responsible for treasury governance and controls. Additionally, we created a treasury controller role within our accounting function and are continuing to add resources as appropriate to improve our financial reporting controls related to treasury activities.

We and our Board of Directors are committed to maintaining a strong control environment and we believe that these remediation efforts represent significant improvements in our controls. We monitored the related processes and controls throughout the remediation period and have concluded that they are operating effectively.

Management’s Assessment of Internal Control Over Financial Reporting

Our management is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate internal control over financial reporting, as defined in Rule 13a-15(f) of the Exchange Act. Our internal control over financial reporting is designed to provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America (U.S. GAAP).

Because of its inherent limitations, internal control over financial reporting may not prevent or detect misstatements. Also, projections of any evaluation of effectiveness to future periods are subject to the risk that controls may become inadequate because of changes in conditions, or that the degree of compliance with policies may deteriorate.

Management performed an assessment of the effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2020. In making this assessment, management used the framework in Internal Control-Integrated Framework (2013) issued by the Committee of Sponsoring Organizations of the Treadway Commission. Based on that assessment under the framework in Internal Control-Integrated Framework (2013), management concluded that our internal control over financial reporting was effective as of December 31, 2020.

The effectiveness of our internal control over financial reporting as of December 31, 2020 has been audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, an independent registered public accounting firm, as stated in their report which appears herein.

Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting

As previously disclosed, since 2017, we have been implementing a long-term business transformation project within our finance, human resources, purchasing and information technology functions which will further centralize and standardize business processes and systems across the company. We have transitioned and continue to transition some processes to our shared services centers while others have been moved to outsourced providers. This multi-year initiative is being conducted in phases and includes modifications to the design and operation of controls over financial reporting.

Other than as described in the preceding paragraph and in the Remediation of Material Weakness section above, there have been no changes in our internal control over financial reporting (as such term is defined in Rules 13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) under the Exchange Act) during the quarter ended December 31, 2020 that have materially affected, or are reasonably likely to materially affect, our internal control over financial reporting.

I****tem 9B. Other Information.

None.

PART III

Refer to information under the captions entitled “Corporate Governance at Baxter International Inc. — Proposal 1 — Election of Directors,” “— Board of Directors — Nomination of Directors,” “— Committees of the Board — Audit Committee,” “— Board Responsibilities — Code of Conduct,” and “Ownership of Our Stock — Delinquent Section 16(a) Reports” in Baxter’s definitive proxy statement to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and delivered to stockholders in connection with the Annual Meeting of Stockholders expected to be held on May 4, 2021 (the Proxy Statement), all of which information is incorporated herein by reference. Also refer to information regarding executive officers of Baxter under the caption entitled “Executive Officers of the Registrant” in Part I of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Refer to information under the captions entitled “Executive Compensation,” and “Corporate Governance at Baxter International—Director Compensation” in the Proxy Statement, all of which information is incorporated herein by reference.

The following table provides information relating to shares of common stock that may be issued under our existing equity compensation plans as of December 31, 2020.

(1)Excludes purchase rights under the Employee Stock Purchase Plan. Under the Employee Stock Purchase Plan, eligible employees may purchase shares of common stock through payroll deductions of up to 15 percent of base pay at a purchase price equal to 85 percent of the closing market price on the purchase date (as defined by the Employee Stock Purchase Plan). A participating employee may not purchase more than $25,000 in fair market value of common stock under the Employee Stock Purchase Plan in any calendar year and may withdraw from the Employee Stock Purchase Plan at any time.

(2)Restricted stock units and performance share units are excluded when determining the weighted-average exercise price of outstanding options.

(3)Includes (i) 2,002,996 shares of common stock available for purchase under the Employee Stock Purchase Plan; (ii) 447,261 shares of common stock available under the 2007 Incentive Plan; (iii) 2,689,357 shares of common stock available under the 2011 Incentive Plan; and (iv) 11,771,363 shares of common stock available under the 2015 Incentive Plan.

(4)Includes shares of common stock issuable upon exercise of options granted under the 2001 Incentive Compensation Program. These shares were made available pursuant to an amendment thereto not approved by stockholders. These additional shares were approved by our Board of Directors, not our stockholders, although our stockholders have approved the 2001 Incentive Compensation Program.

(5)Includes outstanding awards of 20,195,617 stock options, which have a weighted-average exercise price of $56.88 and a weighted-average remaining term of 6.1 years, 1,137,920 shares of common stock issuable upon vesting of restricted stock units, and 759,681 shares of common stock reserved for issuance in connection with performance share unit grants.

Refer to information under the captions entitled “Ownership of Our Stock — Security Ownership by Directors and Executive Officers” and “— Security Ownership by Certain Beneficial Owners” in the Proxy Statement, all of which information is incorporated herein by reference.

Refer to the information under the first paragraph of the caption entitled “Corporate Governance—at Baxter International Inc.—Board of Directors” and the captions entitled “Corporate Governance at Baxter International Inc.—Board of Directors—Director Independence” and “Corporate Governance at Baxter International Inc.—Other Corporate Governance Information—Certain Relationships and Related Person Transactions” in the Proxy Statement, all of which information is incorporated herein by reference.

Refer to the information under the caption entitled “Audit Matters — Audit and Non-Audit Fees” and “—Pre-Approval of Audit and Permissible Non-Audit Fees” in the Proxy Statement, all of which information is incorporated herein by reference.

PART IV

The following documents are filed as a part of this report:

Not applicable.

EXHIBIT INDEX

• Filed herewith.

R Includes redactions.

C Management contract or compensatory plan or arrangement.

(P)Paper exhibit

SIGNATURES

Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.

DATE: February 11, 2021

Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, this report has been signed below by the following persons on behalf of the registrant and in the capacities indicated on February 11, 2021.

SCHEDULE II – Qualifying and Valuation accounts for each of the three years in the period ended December 31, 2020

(1)Valuation accounts of acquired or divested companies, adoption of a new accounting pronouncement and foreign currency translation adjustments.

Reserves are deducted from assets to which they apply.