News Release

BAXTER ADDRESSES BIOETHICS, CLIMATE CHANGE AND CHARITABLE GIVING IN ITS 2000 SUSTAINABILITY REPORT

Sustainability Report Addresses the Triple Bottom Line of Economic, Social and Environmental Performance at the Global Level

DEERFIELD, IL, August 2, 2001--Baxter International Inc. presents its bioethics policy, addresses climate change and reports on its charitable giving in its newly published 2000 Sustainability Report available online.

Baxter is a pilot company for the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Sustainability Reporting Guidelines, which provide a global framework for sustainability reporting at the organizational level. The guidelines focus on the triple bottom line of economic, social and environmental performance. Baxter was one of the first companies to issue a sustainability report following the GRI guidelines, which were first drafted in 1999.

Sustainability requires companies to balance the needs and interests of various stakeholders while operating in a manner that sustains their business, communities and environment for future generations. It was first defined by the United Nation's Bruntland Commission in 1987 as "meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs."

"Social responsibility, environmental quality and economic performance are all equally important. We must meet a higher standard in order to effectively respond to the needs of global stakeholders," said Harry M. Jansen Kraemer, Jr., Baxter chairman and chief executive officer.

Highlights from Baxter's 2000 sustainability report include:

Corporate Profile

• Its performance in delivering a 49 percent return to shareholders in 2000, as well as its product portfolio and an overview of each of its different businesses.

Economic

• Its approach to manufacturing and selling products locally, profiling its Cali, Colombia, facility and explaining that 75 percent of what the company sells in Colombia is manufactured locally.
• How the company is addressing such global health-care trends as the global nursing shortage, patient safety and availability of life-saving medical products and therapies.
• An introduction to the company's bioethics policy, one of the first such formal approaches to guide a company's decision to commercialize a biotechnology-derived agent or therapy.

Social

• Innovative approaches it is taking to employee learning and development through programs including a mentoring initiative and global supervisory development system.
• The Baxter International Foundation's impact in helping to meet critical health-care needs worldwide, awarding $4.7 million dollars to 217 organizations in 32 states, Puerto Rico and eight foreign countries in 2000.

Environmental

• Its performance in reducing toxic and chlorofluorocarbon air toxic air emissions by 99 percent per unit of production value since 1988.
• Its approach to addressing climate change concerns through energy conservation and process changes. The company's goal is to reduce energy consumption and associated greenhouse gases 30 percent per unit of production value by 2005.
• The company's 2000 environmental financial statement showing that the company saved $12 million through its environmental initiatives.

Baxter has been identified as a leader in sustainability, having been selected as the medical products industry leader for the 2000 Dow Jones Sustainability Group Index, which represents the world's first global sustainability index tracking the performance of leading sustainability-driven companies worldwide. The index consists of more than 200 companies that represent the top 10 percent of the leading sustainability companies in 64 industry groups across 36 countries. As of August 2000, the market capitalization of this index exceeded $5 trillion.

"Sustainability is a key component of Baxter becoming what we call a Best Citizen. That is defining what we can do to make the world a better place at home, work and in the global community," said Kraemer. "It's not about being right, but about doing the right things."

Baxter International Inc. is a global medical products and services company that, through its subsidiaries, provides critical therapies for people with life-threatening conditions. Baxter's products and services in the areas of bioscience (including biopharmaceuticals, vaccines, biosurgery products and transfusion therapies), medication delivery and renal therapy are used by health-care providers and their patients in more than 100 countries.

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

	Media Contact: Tanya Tyska, (847) 948-3256 Investor Contact: Mary Kay Ladone, (847) 948-3371