CORONAVIRUS EU INDUSTRY JOINS FORCES TO HELP EUROPEAN CITIZENS

May 2020 #StrongerTogether

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, European citizens and companies are facing an unexpected socio-economic challenge. European companies have shown extraordinary solidarity to face this crisis together. PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT & MEDICAL SUPPLIES

According to the European Apparel and Textile Standards for PPE Confederation (EURATEX), and certain medical devices more than have been made freely 1000 textile and available, a welcomed initiative. fashion companies in the converted their production In one day, these standards EU in order to produce personal were downloaded 30.000 protective equipment (PPE), times in . mainly masks.

French textile company Lemahieu now produces reusable Utenos trikotazas, Lithuanian textile company, is masks 3.000 masks per day. producing non-certified masks around 70.000 in total.

The Spanish brand Inditex, owner of Zara, now produces PPE, mainly masks pledged The Next Technology donation of two million Tecnotessile Cluster announced across . that its member, Centro Eccellenza Qualità (CEQ) Laboratory, has activated in extremely short time a new Medhouse Swiss internal laboratory to provide , which produces the validation tests for medical textiles, is now medical facemasks. manufacturing surgical masks around 75.000 per day. 1 Two Belgian companies, Van Heurck Texsilk, a Spanish outdoor H&M used its supply chain to and ECA, respectively producing workwear textile company, is producing produce range of protective equipment and interiors for cars, adapted their including facemasks, gloves and protective masks and production to make surgical and FFP2 gowns, and supply these free of sanitary gowns. masks 4 million surgical masks per charge to authorities in most affected week and 10 million FFP2 masks per countries 100.000 facemasks year. were supplied to and Spain. French company Les tissages de Charlieu adapted their production lines to Grafica Veneta Portuguese company Raclac, make protective masks is an Italian printing supplier of disposable medical 300.000 per day. company that now textile, ramped up its production produces 1.000.000 1.600 disposable medical gloves FFP1 masks per day. A technician working and 300 surgical masks per . at the Joint Research Centre minute technical workshop is using a French textile 3D-printer to produce valves company Bodloduc Italian clothing for emergency ventilator is now producing company Miroglio masks for use at a local Italian reusable masks reconverted production to hospital. The valves can be used 2.5 millions masks washable face masks in emergency ventilator masks, already delivered. 75.000 per day. which were developed by the Italian company Isinnova by converting snorkeling masks. Italian mattress company Lordflex retooled its production 100.000 masks per day.

DISINFECTANTS

Listoke Distillery PKN Orlen, 's largest in is retooling oil refiner and petrol retailer, its production to face rearranged its production lines the demand of hand to produce hand sanitizing sanitizer. products expecting to produce half a million litres and can double their capacity, if required. Beiersdorf, a German international cosmetic product manufacturer, announced Ramazzotti, an ramping up production of Italian company making a medical grade disinfectant digestive liqueur, converted donations of 1 million litres the production of its Canelli of disinfectant and at least 5 distillery to produce a million skin and hand-care disinfectant solution. products.

MEDICAL DEVICES

The Lithuanian company In , Mercedes-Benz Thermo Fisher Scientific Baltics, offered its 3D printing capability medical and scientific equipment to help produce medical In , Dacia and producer, signed a contract on equipment. Renault, in collaboration 20 March with the Lithuanian with the entire Romanian government on the supply of automotive industry, have test kits for coronavirus transformed their production Dutch health technology diagnostics. The systems will line in order to start testing company Philips is ramping up its allow performing up to 2.000 and producing ventilators. ventilator production from tests daily and analyse 450 1.000 towards 2.000 ventilators samples at a time. per week. 2 How the Commission helps companies to retool and ramp up production of PPE and medical supplies

The Commission requested European Standards Organisations to make European standards for facemasks and other protective equipment freely available to all interested parties. This action enabled industries to convert and make sure products manufactured are safe for use.

In order to accelerate the approval of essential products, help companies EU adapt their production lines, the Commission published guidance with practical Q&As in the following areas: PPE, leave-on hand sanitizers and hand disinfectants as well as 3D printing. This guidance would allow businesses to increase production or convert facilities to manufacture essential products in accordance with EU rules.

The Commission adopted a Recommendation on conformity assessment and market surveillance to increase the supply of certain types of PPE, such as disposable facemasks, to civil protection authorities, without compromising health and safety standards.

Since the beginning of April, and for a period of six months, a 'Clearing House for medical equipment' facilitates the identification of available supplies, including testing kits, accelerating their procurement by Member States. The Commission has contact with hundreds of companies specialised in the production of medical devices and PPE including ventilators who have confirmed their intention to increase, or already have increased, their production to meet demand. Where necessary, the Clearing House matches these proposals with Member States’ needs and demands, and mediate technical or regulatory obstacles or bottlenecks in supply chains to ensure the swift delivery of this equipment.

** The information included in this factsheet is based on publicly available sources. It presents a non-exhaustive list portraying a series of examples to showcase how EU industry has quickly responded to the coronavirus outbreak. For more info, please contact [email protected]

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