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Amazon warehouses are a more dangerous place to work than comparable facilities, new federal injury data shows.

In 2022, there were 6.6 serious injuries for every 100 Amazon workers, according to a report released Wednesday from the union coalition Strategic Organizing Center, which relies on data submitted by Amazon to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. That’s more than double the rate of all non-Amazon warehouses, which had 3.2 serious injuries for every 100 workers.

Amazon’s serious injury rate fell by about 3% between 2021 and 2022. The rate shot up to 6.8 serious injuries for every 100 workers in 2021, compared to a rate of 5.9 serious injuries for every 100 workers in 2020. Amazon previously attributed the jump to a warehouse hiring push during the pandemic.

Amazon has significantly pared its headcount in the last year as it acknowledged it hired too many workers, and CEO Andy Jassy looks to cut costs across the company. Amazon had 1.54 million employees globally as of the end of the fourth quarter, which is down 4% from the year-ago period.

The SOC report argues that Amazon has “not made meaningful progress” on its total rate of injuries or serious injuries between 2017 and 2022, the six-year period in which it has data. Until 2020, OSHA did not release full injury and illness records submitted by employers, claiming that more detailed logs contained confidential commercial information. That changed after a lawsuit filed by Reveal from the Center for Investigative Reporting and labor group Public Citizen forced OSHA to release the data.

While Amazon’s serious injury rate fell between 2021 and 2022, its overall injuries increased. Amazon reported 39,000 total injuries at its U.S. facilities in 2022, up from 38,300 total injuries in 2021.

The data suggests that injuries experienced by workers at the company are more frequent and severe than other warehouse workers, SOC said. In 2022, Amazon was responsible for more than half of all serious injuries in the warehousing industry, while making up 36% of its workers, according to the report.

Labor advocates have zeroed in on Amazon’s workplace safety record in their efforts to organize its facilities. Employees continue to point to the company’s productivity demands and the strenuous nature of the job as a catalyst behind high injury rates. Several states including New York, Washington and California have passed laws taking aim at Amazon’s work quotas.

Federal inspectors have repeatedly levied fines against Amazon at several facilities over various safety violations. OSHA cited Amazon at six of its warehouses for failing to report workplace injuries and exposing workers to ergonomic hazards. Those citations followed inspections by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York at multiple sites, and the office’s probe is ongoing.

Last March, the state of Washington’s Department of Labor and Industries cited Amazon’s flagship facility in Kent, Washington, over unsafe work practices. The agency found that many Amazon jobs involve “repetitive motions, lifting, carrying, twisting, and other physical work” and said workers are required to perform these tasks “at such a fast pace that it increases the risk of injury.”

Amazon has appealed the fine and in October filed a lawsuit against the agency, asking a judge to set aside the orders to reduce hazards on the grounds that they violate the due process protections under the 14th Amendment.

The SDNY, a division of the Department of Justice, is also investigating whether Amazon made “false representations” to lenders about its workplace safety record to obtain credit.

Amazon said it will appeal the OSHA citations. It also said it disagrees with the SDNY’s allegations.

Representatives from Amazon didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the SOC report.

The company has previously defended its safety record, and it says it plans to invest $550 million on safety initiatives in 2023, after spending roughly $1 billion on improving safety between 2019 and 2022.

Jassy has said Amazon’s injury rates are “sometimes misunderstood,” but he acknowledged Amazon can do more to improve safety inside its facilities. In 2021, Amazon set a goal to halve its warehouse injury rate by 2025.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in 2021 pledged to make the company “Earth’s Best Employer” and “Earth’s Safest Place to Work.” Shortly after, Amazon rolled out WorkingWell, a series of programs designed to prevent workplace injuries in its warehouses by encouraging stretching and healthy eating habits, among other things.

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Anne Wojcicki has a new offer to take 23andMe private, this time for $74.7 million

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Anne Wojcicki has a new offer to take 23andMe private, this time for .7 million

Anne Wojcicki attends the WSJ Magazine Style & Tech Dinner in Atherton, California, on March 15, 2023.

Kelly Sullivan | Getty Images Entertainment | Getty Images

23andMe CEO Anne Wojcicki and New Mountain Capital have submitted a proposal to take the embattled genetic testing company private, according to a Friday filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Wojcicki and New Mountain have offered to acquire all of 23andMe’s outstanding shares in cash for $2.53 per share, or an equity value of approximately $74.7 million. The company’s stock closed at $2.42 on Friday with a market cap of about $65 million.

The offer comes after a turbulent year for 23andMe, with the stock losing more than 80% of its value in 2024. In January, the company announced plans to explore strategic alternatives, which could include a sale of the company or its assets, a restructuring or a business combination. 

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23andMe has a special committee of independent directors in place to evaluate potential paths forward. The company appointed three new independent directors to its board in October after all seven of its previous directors abruptly resigned the prior month. The special committee has to approve Wojcicki and New Mountain’s proposal.

“We believe that our Proposal provides compelling value and immediate liquidity to the Company’s public stockholders,” Wojcicki and Matthew Holt, managing director and president of private equity at New Mountain, wrote in a letter to the special committee on Thursday.

Wojcicki previously submitted a proposal to take the company private for 40 cents per share in July, but it was rejected by the special committee, in part because the members said it lacked committed financing and did not provide a premium to the closing price at the time.

Wojcicki and New Mountain are willing to provide secured debt financing to fund 23andMe’s operations through the transaction’s closing, the filing said. New Mountain is based in New York and has $55 billion of assets under management, according to its website.

23andMe declined to comment.

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Shares of Hims & Hers tumble 23% after FDA says semaglutide is no longer in shortage

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Shares of Hims & Hers tumble 23% after FDA says semaglutide is no longer in shortage

Hims & Hers

Shares of Hims & Hers Health tumbled more than 23% on Friday after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that the shortage of semaglutide injection products has been resolved.

Semaglutide is the active ingredient in Novo Nordisk‘s blockbuster weight loss drug Wegovy and diabetes treatment Ozempic. Those medications are part of a class of drugs called GLP-1s, and demand for the treatments has exploded in recent years. As a result, digital health companies such as Hims & Hers have been prescribing compounded semaglutide as an alternative for patients who are navigating volatile supply hurdles and insurance obstacles.

Compounded drugs are custom-made alternatives to brand-name drugs designed to meet a specific patient’s needs, and compounders are allowed to produce them when brand-name treatments are in shortage. The FDA doesn’t review the safety and efficacy of compounded products.

Hims & Hers began offering compounded semaglutide to patients in May, and it owns compounding pharmacies that produce the medications.

Compounded medications are typically much cheaper than their branded counterparts. Hims & Hers sells compounded semaglutide for less than $200 per month, while Ozempic and Wegovy both cost around $1,000 per month without insurance.

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The FDA said Friday that it will start taking action against compounders for violations in the next 60 to 90 days, depending on the type of facility, in order to “avoid unnecessary disruption to patient treatment.”

“Now that the FDA has determined the drug shortage for semaglutide has been resolved, we will continue to offer access to personalized treatments as allowed by law to meet patient needs,” Hims & Hers CEO Andrew Dudum posted Friday on X. “We’re also closely monitoring potential future shortages, as Novo Nordisk stated two weeks ago that it would continue to have ‘capacity limitations’ and ‘expected continued periodic supply constraints and related drug shortage notifications.'”

Him & Hers’ weight loss offerings have been a massive hit with investors. Shares of the company climbed more than 200% last year, and the stock is already up more than 100% this year despite Friday’s move.

Even before it added compounded GLP-1s to its portfolio, the company said in its 2023 fourth-quarter earnings call that it expects its weight loss program to bring in more than $100 million in revenue by the end of 2025.

Despite the turbulent regulatory landscape, Hims & Hers has showed no signs of slowing down.

On Friday, the company announced it has acquired a U.S.-based peptide facility that will “further verticalize the company’s long-term ability to deliver personalized medications.” Hims & Hers will explore advances across metabolic optimization, recovery science, biological resistances, cognitive performance and preventative health through the acquisition, the company said.

That move comes just days after Hims & Hers also bought Trybe Labs, the New Jersey-based at-home lab testing facility. Trybe Labs will allow Hims & Hers to perform at-home blood draws and more comprehensive pretreatment testing.

Hims & Hers did not disclose the terms of either deal.

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Tesla recalls more than 375,000 vehicles in U.S. due to failing power-assisted steering systems

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Tesla recalls more than 375,000 vehicles in U.S. due to failing power-assisted steering systems

Tesla models Y and 3 are displayed at a Tesla dealership in Corte Madera, California, on Dec. 20, 2024.

Justin Sullivan | Getty Images

Tesla is voluntarily recalling 376,241vehicles in the U.S. to correct an issue with failing power-assisted steering systems, according to records posted to the website of the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

In a safety recall report posted on the NHTSA website, Tesla said the recall includes Model 3 and Model Y vehicles that were manufactured for sale in the U.S. from Feb. 28, 2023, to October 11, 2023, and that were equipped with a certain older software release.

The records said printed circuit boards in the steering systems in affected vehicles could become overstressed, causing the power-assist steering to fail in some cases when a Tesla vehicle rolled to a stop and then accelerated.

When electronic power-assist steering systems fail in a Tesla, drivers need to exert more force to steer their cars, which can increase the risk of a collision.

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Tesla told the vehicle safety regulator that it was not aware of any crashes, injuries or deaths related to the power steering failures, and that it was offering an over-the-air software update as a remedy.

The recall follows an earlier related probe and voluntary recall in China concerning the same systems.

President Donald Trump has appointed Tesla CEO Elon Musk to lead a team that is slashing the federal government workforce, and in some cases, regulations and entire agencies. Those cuts already affected the NHTSA, an agency Musk has long seen as standing in the way of some of his ambitions at Tesla.

The regulator has been engaged in a yearslong investigation into safety defects in the systems that Tesla markets currently as its Autopilot and Full Self-Driving (Supervised) options. The features do not make Tesla cars into robotaxis. They require a human driver ready to steer or brake at any time.

The Washington Post reported on Thursday that Musk’s team has led mass firings at the NHTSA, reducing the agency’s workforce and capacity to investigate companies including Tesla by about 10%.

Tesla didn’t respond to a request for comment.

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