Ticker: Pot smokers welcome, Amazon says; German biotech buys Cambridge rival for $1.7B

Amazon said it will stop testing jobseekers for marijuana.

The company, the second-largest private employer in the U.S. behind Walmart, is making the change as states legalize cannabis or introduce laws banning employers from testing for it.

In March, a New York man sued Amazon, saying the company rescinded his job offer at an Amazon warehouse because he tested positive for marijuana, even though the city banned employers from testing job applicants for cannabis in 2020.

Amazon said in a blog post that it will still test workers for other drugs and conduct “impairment checks” on the job. And the company said some roles may still require a cannabis test in line with Department of Transportation regulations.

German biotech buys Cambridge rival for $1.7B

Germany-based MorphoSys AG said Wednesday that it is buying Cambridge-based rival Constellation Pharmaceuticals Inc. in a deal valuing the biotech company at $1.7 billion.

MorphoSys said in a statement that it has agreed to pay $34 in cash per Constellation share and the takeover has been unanimously approved by both companies’ boards.

Constellation, based in Cambridge, specializes in novel therapeutics in patients with cancer.

The deal, expected to be completed in the third quarter, was enabled through $2.025 billion in funding that MorphoSys received from investor Royalty Pharma, in return for royalties on several drugs developed by the German company, which is headquartered in Planegg near Munich.

from Boston Herald https://ift.tt/3fYUhHO