Royal Philips NV recalled about 3.5 million ventilation devices used to treat sleep apnea and increased its cost estimate for addressing a defect that might potentially cause cancer.
The company said some of its ventilators use sound-abatement foam that might degrade into particles that could be ingested or inhaled and potentially have toxic and carcinogenic effects.
The recall is a setback for Philips as it shifts to focus entirely on healthcare products. The company reached an agreement earlier this year to sell its domestic appliances business to private equity firm Hillhouse Capital and first flagged the quality issue with certain sleep and respiratory-care products in April.
Exposure to the polyester-based polyurethane foam that can enter patients’ airways can cause headache, irritation, inflammation and respiratory issues, Philips said.
The company issued a recall notification only for the US and announced a field safety notice for the rest of the world.
Philips doubled its provision for expected costs related to the issue to 500 million euros (US$605 million).
Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder in which breathing stops and starts, causing fatigue and leading to longer-term health risks. Philips has a range of ventilator products aimed at improving sleep patterns, many sold under the DreamStation product family.
Philips said it was working with regulators on a repair and replacement program.
To many, Tatu City on the outskirts of Nairobi looks like a success. The first city entirely built by a private company to be operational in east Africa, with about 25,000 people living and working there, it accounts for about two-thirds of all foreign investment in Kenya. Its low-tax status has attracted more than 100 businesses including Heineken, coffee brand Dormans, and the biggest call-center and cold-chain transport firms in the region. However, to some local politicians, Tatu City has looked more like a target for extortion. A parade of governors have demanded land worth millions of dollars in exchange
An Indonesian animated movie is smashing regional box office records and could be set for wider success as it prepares to open beyond the Southeast Asian archipelago’s silver screens. Jumbo — a film based on the adventures of main character, Don, a large orphaned Indonesian boy facing bullying at school — last month became the highest-grossing Southeast Asian animated film, raking in more than US$8 million. Released at the end of March to coincide with the Eid holidays after the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan, the movie has hit 8 million ticket sales, the third-highest in Indonesian cinema history, Film
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co’s (TSMC, 台積電) revenue jumped 48 percent last month, underscoring how electronics firms scrambled to acquire essential components before global tariffs took effect. The main chipmaker for Apple Inc and Nvidia Corp reported monthly sales of NT$349.6 billion (US$11.6 billion). That compares with the average analysts’ estimate for a 38 percent rise in second-quarter revenue. US President Donald Trump’s trade war is prompting economists to retool GDP forecasts worldwide, casting doubt over the outlook for everything from iPhone demand to computing and datacenter construction. However, TSMC — a barometer for global tech spending given its central role in the
Alchip Technologies Ltd (世芯), an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) designer specializing in server chips, expects revenue to decline this year due to sagging demand for 5-nanometer artificial intelligence (AI) chips from a North America-based major customer, a company executive said yesterday. That would be the first contraction in revenue for Alchip as it has been enjoying strong revenue growth over the past few years, benefiting from cloud-service providers’ moves to reduce dependence on Nvidia Corp’s expensive AI chips by building their own AI accelerator by outsourcing chip design. The 5-nanometer chip was supposed to be a new growth engine as the lifecycle
RSS