[NEW YORK] After seeing gross sales of medical masks soar through the Covid-19 pandemic, US producer 3M warned on Monday that demand is anticipated to sluggish sharply this 12 months.
The warning echoes that of different corporations like vaccine-maker Pfizer and the CVS drugstore chain which have stated pandemic-related gross sales are more likely to soften.
After Covid-19 broke out in 2020, 3M, a conglomerate that makes a variety of merchandise from Submit-it notes to air filters, shortly ramped up output of face masks, which turned ubiquitous.
However in its quarterly earnings report Monday, 3M forecast a “decline in Covid-related respirator demand” which it stated will weigh on general gross sales progress and in addition dampen earnings.
Honeywell in early February stated it bought fewer masks within the fourth quarter in comparison with the identical interval in 2020, and sees the slowdown persevering with this 12 months, hitting the corporate’s general gross sales.
Pfizer, whose vaccine developed with German firm BioNTech was the primary authorised in america to counter the lethal virus, warned final week that gross sales of the jabs would sluggish in 2022.
However the US pharmaceutical group expects to see gross sales of its Covid-19 remedy capsule to leap to at the least US$22 billion.
In the meantime, CVS, which carried out 32 million Covid assessments and administered greater than 59 million vaccines in 2021, stated final week it’s anticipating vaccinations to drop by 70 to 80 per cent and testing to fall by as a lot as 50 per cent.
CVS chief monetary officer Shawn Guertin informed analysts the chain ought to see a “modest” uptick in gross sales of over-the-counter take a look at kits. AFP