Face masks and hand sanitizer are flying off the shelves and pharmaceutical stocks are skyrocketing on fears that a swine flu outbreak could go global.

Even as much of the economy took a blow from news of the potential epidemic, some companies with the tools to tackle a wide outbreak have already seen a bump in their share prices and could be poised to profit if the disease continues its deadly spread around the world.

Photos splashed across newspapers worldwide Monday showed Mexicans wearing surgical-style face masks and public health professionals urged Americans to wash their hands using alcohol-base sanitizers to stem the spread of the disease.

Mask sales already saw sharp increases. By Monday evening the top two best sellers on Amazon.com in the Health and Personal Care section were face masks.

The top seller, a 3M surgical mask labeled for “bird flu” use, had sold out on Amazon. Another manufacturer, Alpha Pro Tech, announced it would increase production to keep pace with demand.

Sales of hand sanitizer have been steadily on the rise for years, and a spike in mask sales seemed noticeable on Monday. Purell, the sanitizer market leader produced by Johnson & Johnson, has seen its sales double since 2003 to nearly half or $42 million of total $90.3 million market, according to Information Resources Inc., a Chicago-based market research firm.

“The hand sanitizer business will soar,” said Professor Mahmud Hassan, director of the Pharmaceutical Management MBA Program at Rutgers University. “People will use more napkins and lotions. That business will go up.” 

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