By Jessica Wohl

CHICAGO, US - A run on face masks to protect against the flu lifted profits at 3M Co and Kimberly-Clark Corp, and both said demand remains strong as concern over the H1N1 pandemic rises.

The companies, which make face masks along with a wide variety of other products, said on Thursday that flu-related business drove increased sales of masks in the latest quarter.

Both companies saw their shares hit new 2009 highs after they raised their full-year profit forecasts. In afternoon trade, 3M rose 3.5 percent, while Kimberly-Clark shot up 5.8 percent.

Kimberly-Clark and 3M saw demand increase earlier in the year for masks called N95 respirators as concerns about the H1N1 flu spread. Pregnant women and children, as well as adults with underlying health conditions such as asthma, are said to be most vulnerable to H1N1, also known as swine flu.

An N95 respirator covers the nose and mouth tightly, filtering out tiny particles that can carry viruses and bacteria.

It is different from a surgical mask, a loose covering that lets air in at the sides and is used to protect patients from the people treating them.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended that healthcare workers wear N95 masks to protect themselves when treating patients suspected of having H1N1.

The Institute of Medicine agreed in a September report.

Kimberly-Clark said it has been working with hospitals for months to help plan for their anticipated need.

"We're selling every mask we can make," Chairman and Chief Executive Thomas Falk said in an interview. "We're focused on allocating the scarce capacity to those loyal customers... and, unfortunately, it turns out they're needing everything we can make, and then some."

Such demand should drive sales in the near future.

"Our guess is it will carry into early 2010 ... but probably begin to wane as we get into the latter part of the first quarter," Falk said during a conference call.

RUNNING FACTORIES 24/7

It is already very difficult for patients to find H1N1 vaccines, which made their debut earlier this month.

H1N1-related demand for masks helped lift 3M sales by between $80 million and $100 million in the third quarter.

Total revenue declined 5.6 percent to $6.2 billion.

The diversified manufacturer said it has been running its factories that make respiratory masks 24 hours a day, seven days a week since May, and still has not made progress on backlogs.

Kimberly-Clark is also "adding shifts and adding capacity wherever we can," Falk said.

Kimberly-Clark said stepped-up demand for its masks accounted for about 40 percent of the 18 percent volume jump in its healthcare business.

The healthcare unit, which also makes items such as sterile gloves, was the company's only segment to post sales growth in the quarter.

Kimberly-Clark also said that exam gloves had their sixth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth.

However, the company's large Kleenex tissue business saw sales slip a little bit. While some of the drop likely stems from store brands grabbing sales, there may also be fewer runny noses needing tissues this year, Falk said.

With H1N1 there is a bit more of an acute illness with high fever and other symptoms, rather than the type of head cold where one uses up boxes of tissues, Falk said.

Manufacturers of hand sanitizers or cleansers, like Ecolab Inc, are also expected to report a lift from flu-related sales when they issue quarterly results in the coming weeks.

Other sellers of N95s include Cardinal Health Inc and Alpha Pro Tech, whose shares were up 1.7 percent and 3.6 percent, respectively.

(Additional reporting by James Kelleher in Chicago and Maggie Fox in Washington; Editing by Gerald E.McCormick and Steve Orlofsky)

-Reuters