3M Co. is ramping up production of its face and respirator masks aimed at hospitals while battling an onslaught of counterfeit products that recently hit the marketplace, company officials said Friday.
"3M is receiving increasing reports of fraudulent and counterfeiting activities involving 3M products," the Maplewood-based international giant said in a statement. "The company strongly condemns any unethical actions taken to exploit the global pandemic."
The company has doubled global production of its highly coveted N95 respiratory masks to 1.1 billion a year (or 100 million a month), the statement said, and is working to get the new batches into the hands of hospitals and health care providers on the front lines of the coronavirus pandemic.
3M is the latest Minnesota firm to ramp up manufacturing of products that can fight the virus. Protolabs in Maple Plaine and Wyoming Machine in Stacy are newly producing parts for ventilators, COVID-19 test kits and food packaging equipment.
For 3M, about 400 million of 3M's N95 masks are currently manufactured each year in the United States. They are increasingly being directed to support both government and public health response, officials said.
The company also manufactures respirators at locations in Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America.
With the help of Congressional action taken this week, 3M expects to be able to route more of its mask to customers in the health care industry. Hospitals and first responders have talked about running out of masks and are predicting a shortage of ventilators in the U.S.
The company said it is now working with governments, medical officials, customers and distributors around the world to help get the supplies where they are needed most.
