“We used to joke that we were Colorado’s best kept secret,” reports Baxa Corporation’s Vice President of Marketing Marian Robinson. This was before the company began garnering attention by winning awards and making headlines for acquiring ForHealth Technologies, a Florida based maker of healthcare software and robotics. For a firm that has been operating since 1981 as one of the state’s foremost family-owned businesses, the lack of recognition among the general public does come as a surprise, given the company reaps over $150M in sales and employs north of 500 people worldwide. Yet while Robinson admits there is some difficulty in putting a label around what Baxa does – manufacturing and marketing inexpensive disposables to expensive robotics for hospital pharmacies – the company has long enjoyed a reputation among its customers as the foremost provider of products for enhancing pharmacy safety.
Robinson notes that “the biggest risk in medication is human error,” meaning that automation and other means of preventing these errors offer the most effective route to improved pharmacy safety. Baxa products enabling such benefits include ExactaMed™ Oral Dispensers, which allow for accurate dosing while preventing wrong route administration, machines and pumps that automate the filling and mixing of fluid medications, and nutritional supplements for total parenteral nutrition (TPN). The company has been especially successful in tertiary care and children’s hospitals, given that in the case of the latter, Robinson notes that “when dealing with very small doses accuracy becomes all the more important.”
The company has also worked to stay on leading edge of training and developing procedural guidelines to support hospital pharmacies in complying with regulations and improving safety and efficiency. The passage of USP <797,> a regulation covering a wide variety of pharmacy procedures that impact sterile compounding, initially generated some concern at Baxa that more hospitals might decide to outsource their pharmacies. Instead, Baxa was able to turn this into an opportunity by partnering with the U.S. Pharmacopoeia (USP) to be a leading provider of guidelines and training to comply with USP <797.> Core to its training offerings is the STAR (Skills Training, Academics and Resources) Center, located at Baxa headquarters in Englewood, Colorado, which is the only special purpose facility of its kind to include a sterile room area where pharmacists and related professionals can receive hands-on instruction in pharmacy safety procedures. Baxa made a $1M investment in this facility, an outlay the company sees as worthwhile to “capture mindshare” as the preeminent provider in the pharmacy safety space.
Although US hospitals represent a finite market, Baxa still believes it has opportunities to grow within this market through providing each hospital with a wider range of products and services. With its existing products and services offering many touch points to those on the front lines of pharmacy operations, Baxa feels it is well positioned to continue innovation in this space. On evaluating opportunities to expand its offerings Robinson notes: “Product to development used to be more about hearing a pharmacist say ‘I wish I had something that would…’ and we would go out and make it. Now it’s more systematic. We actively look for challenges and bottlenecks within the pharmacy and try to solve them.”
Along with internal development the company recently expanded through the strategic acquisition of ForHealth Technologies. ForHealth offerings include the IntelliFill, which automates the preparation of IV solutions. While the product fits well under the Baxa umbrella of pharmacy services, Robinson cites differences in the purchasing process: “The decisions to buy most of our products lies with the pharmacy director or pharmacy manager. When you have a machine that costs over $1M you need to go higher up the chain of command.” Baxa will also look to strategically expand its international reach. The company, whose first international presence was in the UK in 1988, currently garners about 20% of its sales from outside North America. One challenge to this expansion are requirements to provide documentation in support in different languages – the company currently offers support in five.
More recently Baxa has started attracting the attention it has likely long deserved from a variety of stakeholders. Goldman Sachs took a minority stake in the company, bringing added financial expertise to strategy and operations. Baxa has also been nominated three years running as one of the best places to work in Colorado and placed seventh on a list of family owned businesses in the state. The attention is likely to continue as Baxa remains in a strong position in the down economy. The company is looking to add facilities near its Englewood, Colorado headquarters so it can turn some square footage used for offices in its main building into additional cleanroom and manufacturing space. The question remains, however, as to why Baxa flew below the radar for so long. Perhaps that answer lies in Baxa Corporation’s mission of pharmacy safety which means it does most of its work behind the scenes to ensure mistakes don’t happen. “Patient Receives Correct Medication Dose” has never really made great news copy.
