Baxter International has agreed to acquire Sweden’s Gambro, a privately held maker of dialysis products and therapies for $4 billion (26.5 billion SEK) including assumption of Gambro’s debt. The deal will likely make Baxter the world’s largest maker of kidney dialysis products, as it vaults past market leader Fresenius Medical Care, and give it a comprehensive dialysis product portfolio.

Robert Parkinson, chairman and CEO of Baxter, says that the acquisition would strengthen his company’s global dialysis offerings by extending its portfolio in the market for hemodialysis, in which waste products are filtered from the blood.

Gambro’s products are used in hemodialysis and continuous renal replacement therapy, with annual sales of approximately $1.6 billion in 2011. Baxter, a global diversified healthcare company offering products and treatments for hemophilia, immune disorders, infectious disease, kidney disease, trauma, and other acute and chronic medical conditions, had $13.9 billion in revenue last year, with almost $2.5 billion derived from renal products.

More than two million patients globally are on some form of dialysis, with dialysis treatment rates increasing more than 5 percent annually in part due to the rising rates of diabetes and hypertension.

Baxter says the deal provides a number of long-term global growth opportunities. With a broad and complementary dialysis product portfolio, Baxter can accelerate product sales in established markets such as Europe, where Gambro has an extensive footprint and it can expand Gambro’s reach in high-growth regions of Latin America and Asia-Pacific, where Baxter has been growing its peritoneal dialysis business. In addition, Baxter will also build upon its pipeline of investigational home hemodialysis and automated peritoneal dialysis systems by adding Gambro’s next-generation monitors, dialyzers, devices and dialysis solutions.

Baxter expects to use its cash generated outside the United States and debt to finance the acquisition. In a conference call, Baxter said the deal would create $300 million in cost synergies with the combining of manufacturing and product servicing operations.

Baxter hopes to close the deal in the first half of 2013. If consummated, the deal would be Baxter’s largest deal ever, according to data from S&P’s CapitalIQ database. It is also Baxter’s fifth acquisition in less than two years.