United States President Donald Trump and his team of advisers are looking into sourcing millions of facemasks from 3M to combat the spread of the coronavirus. The order could be worth over $1 billion in sales for the Post-its and Scotch tape inventor.
According to US Vice President Mike Pence, they have already made a deal with 3M, and the company said it will produce 35 million more masks per month. "We are also working with other manufacturers," Pence said on Saturday.
A representative of 3M clarified though that they are not yet "under any contract" for the volume of masks that the Trump administration mentioned, but the company said it was ready to respond to the government's request for respirators.
Last week, a pre-solicitation proposal sent to suppliers by the Department of Health and Human Services laid out its action plan for the purchase of 500 million N95 respirators and masks over the next 18 months as part of the department's Strategic National Stockpile.
The health department said the masks and respirators will be used to protect healthcare personnel and emergency medical rescue teams from airborne pathogens, which is crucial to maintaining "resilience in the US healthcare system."
The coronavirus is spreading at a consistently fast rate. Six people have died in the US -- all from Washington state -- as the US grapples with over 100 cases of the virus that's showing no signs of let-up.
Cases of the coronavirus surged by more than 50 percent in Italy over the weekend alone, and almost doubled in Iran. France reported 30 new cases, while Australia also reported their first fatalities.
Meanwhile, manufacturers have long cautioned that US facemask production was not robust enough to keep up with rising demand in case of a full-blown pandemic. Companies are already having a difficult time struggling to cope with demand, which is said to be outpacing existing inventories. As a few days ago, the US had around 30 million masks in its disposal.
In an attempt to get mask-makers to hike their production, the health department pointed out that it will make sure companies do not get stagnant with large volumes of supply as soon as the paranoia is over. A 3M facility in South Dakota is now churning out facemasks seven days a week.
3M earned around $350 million in sales from the H1N1 pandemic between 2009 and 2010, the company disclosed on a 2010 earnings call. Which is not surprising, considering that 3M is one of the world's largest makers of N95 respirator masks and other related products that are helpful during calamities.
