As the black market trade of its N95 respirator masks has continued to swell, pressure is mounting on 3M, which manufactures the masks and other protective gear, to crack down on price gouging among its distributors. Tuesday, amid widespread reports that vendors of medical supplies are wildly overcharging for the desperately needed protective devices, the Minnesota-based company insisted that it is committed to combating the inflation of prices for its products used during the coronavirus pandemic. In a statement about both price gouging and the sale of counterfeit masks, which also appears to be a problem, 3M promised that it “will aggressively pursue third-parties that seek to take advantage of this crisis. We are working with law enforcement authorities around the world — including, in the U.S., the U.S. Attorney General, state Attorneys General, and local authorities.” But some civic groups are asking the company to do more. The Metro Industrial Areas Foundation, or Metro IAF, a Queens-based nonprofit, responded to 3M’s statement yesterday with a letter to the company’s CEO, Mike Roman, insisting that Roman make it clear to the company’s distributors that if they take advantage of the desperate need for protective gear they won’t be able to sell 3M’s products in the future.

The group is also demanding that, within 72 hours, 3M put together a database of its worldwide inventory of N95 masks, with product information, quantities, pricing, payment terms, location, and contact information — and make it available to health care providers. “We believe that putting the burden on healthcare buyers and law enforcement to fix the problem of price gouging is unrealistic and sidesteps 3M’s duty of responsible care for its products,” Rev. Patrick O’Connor of the First Presbyterian Church of Jamaica, Queens, wrote on behalf of the organization. Metro IAF, an affiliate of a 75-year-old organizing network, isn’t usually involved in procuring emergency medical gear. The group has a history of working on issues such as jobs, criminal justice, education, and housing. But its focus has changed in recent weeks as clergy in some of the churches that belong to the network began to get desperate reports from their members on the front lines. “We were all hearing the same story over and over again: We don’t have the equipment we need, we don’t have masks, we don’t have what we need to protect ourselves,” said Rev. David K. Brawley of the St. Paul Community Baptist Church in East Brooklyn. Many of Brawley’s congregants are front-line health care workers — “the folks who work in services within the hospitals, and not just doctors, also the folks who people tend to forget about,” he said. “These are people I deeply care about and love.” So organizers from the group, whose member organizations include religious congregations, unions, schools, community health centers, and other civic institutions, began to investigate whether they might be able to arrange a purchase of some of the supplies themselves — and quickly found themselves in what has become the “Wild West” global market of medical supplies. Among the suppliers they identified was a Canadian distributor who claimed last week to have millions of N95 masks, but demanded a minimum purchase of 20 million. Within hours of the distributor’s demand, the group had assembled a consortium of 19 different entities in need of the masks, including two major hospital chains, one city health department in Colorado, six county governments in three states, and one governor’s office. Though several of the buyers were also hoping to purchase gowns, gloves, ventilators, and other supplies, they were pooling resources to be able to put in the minimum order of 3M’s 1860 N95 mask, which protects health care workers against airborne particles and is “resistant to splash and spatter of blood and other infectious materials.” Although the 1860 N95 masks should cost $1.27 each, according to a price list 3M issued yesterday, the Canadian dealer was charging more than $7 per mask. But the jacked-up price isn’t what killed the deal. Even the major hospital chains were desperate enough to spend the money. Instead, the group’s purchase began to fall apart when the dealer said that the Canadian military had seized 10 million of the masks and then insisted that the group not only commit to buying the remaining 20 million masks but also to five additional monthly purchases of 20 million masks, totaling $140 million. While it is still exploring how to help purchase managers find supplies, Metro IAF has pivoted since that and other deals fell through. “After a few of these experiences, our team regrouped and realized that 3M and other larger players needed to help clean up this mess,” said Joe Morris, an organizer with the group. “They maintain that they don’t have control,” Morris said of 3M. “We maintain they need to get control. Their duty doesn’t end after manufacture.”