The medical technology group Philips fears that it will have to stop the production of equipment to treat cardiac arrests in the short term due to the global chip shortage. The company warns against this in conversation with the NOS.
According to CEO Van Houten, there is already ‘shortage’ with these devices. “We are concerned about this shortage, also because it concerns critical medical equipment. Of course we do not want to end up in a situation where we will not be able to supply hospitals because no equipment can be made.”
There is a real chance that Philips can no longer make these devices due to the shortage, says Van Houten. “If car factories are down because there are no chips, the same could be happening for medical equipment.”
The CEO immediately uses the opportunity to call on the chip suppliers. “I want to make an immediate appeal that chip suppliers ensure that the medical device value chain is in any case not compromised.” That would mean that other companies that are also keen on the chips, such as car and mobile phone manufacturers, would end up further back in the queue.
Good quarter
Apart from a few other setbacks, Philips had a good first quarter. The company saw its turnover increase by 9 percent in the first three months to 3.8 billion euros. The net profit of 40 million euros was one million less than last year. This was the result of a recall of devices against sleep apnea.
Philips is fully committed to medical technology and sold significantly more medical devices. Especially the Diagnosis and Treatment departments, with MRI scanners and ultrasound machines, and Personal Health (for example shavers) performed well. Sales at the Connected Care department for, among other things, respirators fell after last year’s boom.
Foam
The lagging profit is due to problems with soundproofing foam in the first series of devices for sleep apnea. That foam crumbles and crumbles as a result of heat and moisture and the wrong cleaning products. Philips is allocating 250 million euros to solve the problem. The problem does not arise in the new generation of devices.
The outlook remains somewhat uncertain due to the ongoing corona pandemic. The company is expecting revenue growth of 6 percent for this year, double that of previous forecasts.
These are the first figures of the medical technology group without the division of household appliances such as vacuum cleaners and coffee machines. It was sold last month to the Chinese investment company Hillhouse Capital for 3.7 billion euros.
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