The United States industrial giant is the maker of Post-It notes, Scotch Tape, and one of the most desperately needed medical supplies in the world right now: N95 facial masks.

The $32 billion Minnesota conglomerate 3M is one of the world’s largest manufacturers of N95 filtering face masks, which have been in high demand in the U.S. and around the world since the coronavirus outbreak.

N95 respirators are so named because they are capable of filtering out 95% of large and small particles, in