Business

As bullets fly around a high-speed train carrying a former Miss World and a gang of spies through the Italian Alps, shopping is surely the last thing on viewers’ minds. Yet should they press pause, they will see an option to buy items from the show: the heroine’s gold necklace, her red dress, or the teetering stilettos in which she is improbably running rings around the villains. Only her exploding perfume is not yet for sale.“Citadel”, a thriller on Amazon Prime Video, shows what happens when the world’s biggest online retailer becomes one of its biggest entertainment producers. As well as buying merchandise from the show on Amazon’s e-commerce site, audiences can listen to its soundtrack on Amazon Music, or read about its production on Amazon’s sister site, imdb.com. Its multinational cast and plot, and planned spin-offs in different languages, are chosen to appeal to shoppers around the world.Hollywood old hands are snooty about Amazon’s video efforts, and understandably so. Despite a reported budget of $300m, making it the second-priciest tv series in history (after “The Rings of Power”, another Amazon project), “Citadel” received lukewarm reviews and failed to crack the top ten most-streamed shows in America (Amazon says it has done better internationally). Critics see it as emblematic of the company’s high-spending, low-impact record in video. This year Amazon will blow $12bn on streaming content, second only to Netflix (see chart). It has had some hits, including “Reacher” and “The Boys”. But its 45 streaming nominations at the upcoming Emmy awards—a record for Amazon—is less than half as many as Netflix or Warner-Discovery’s service, Max. “Amazon’s hit rate is not good, nor consistent with its spend,” admits one former executive.Yet despite its creative misfires, Amazon is quietly assembling something that has eluded most of its rivals: a model for how to make streaming pay. Its shows may underwhelm, but it is preparing to pair them with its formidable advertising machine, and is turning its streaming app into a high-margin marketplace for third-party sales, along the lines of its all-conquering e-commerce site. Hollywood might snigger at Amazon’s output. But the Seattle firm may yet have the last laugh.Amazon has been in the video business since 2006, when it launched Unbox, an iTunes-like downloading platform. Since then the company has deployed its tech-sized chequebook to become one of the biggest forces in Tinseltown. Its main streaming service, Prime Video ($8.99 a month, or free as part of Amazon’s broader Prime membership), attracts some 156m monthly viewers—about as many as Disney+ and second only to Netflix. Freevee, its free streaming service with ads, has another 40m or so. Fire tv, Amazon’s range of internet-connected tv sets and streaming sticks, outsells every brand bar Samsung, with nearly 100m devices in use worldwide, according to TechInsights, a data firm.The most obvious motive for Amazon’s video experiments is to increase the value of the Prime bundle, which keeps members shopping on the e-commerce site. But video has the potential to become a moneyspinner in its own right, in two ways.First, advertising. In little more than a decade Amazon has created a digital-ads business that has disrupted the duopoly of Google and Meta. Its ad revenue this year will be around $45bn, making up about 7.5% of worldwide digital advertising, estimates Insider Intelligence, a research company. It is already more than a third the size of Meta’s ad business. But whereas Google and Meta both have healthy video-ad operations (through YouTube and Reels, respectively), Amazon’s inventory is mainly sponsored search results on its e-commerce site.That seems to be changing. Amazon has kept Prime Video largely ad-free to preserve a “premium” feel, says one senior executive. But the introduction of commercials last year by Netflix and Disney+ has given a green light to others to do the same. Amazon has been experimenting with running ads alongside sports shows on Prime, and has shifted more of its back-catalogue to Freevee, its ad-supported streamer. Analysts expect to see more commercial breaks on Prime soon.Among streamers, Amazon is uniquely well placed in the advertising game. Whereas Netflix acknowledges that it is mainly limited to generic “brand” advertising, Amazon has enough information on its customers, through its e-commerce site and its Fresh grocery stores, to serve highly personalised ads. What’s more, it can measure the effectiveness of those ads, by observing viewers’ subsequent behaviour in its shops. It has yet to exploit this ability fully, but viewers will get a taste of it in September when Amazon plans to run targeted, measured ads alongside its “Thursday Night Football“ programme. In November it will show a blizzard of ads when it airs the first American football game to coincide with Black Friday, an annual holiday to honour the shopping gods.It makes this a “foundational year” for Amazon’s video-ad business, says Andrew Lipsman of Insider Intelligence. “The future of their advertising strategy on video is going to really take hold.” Morgan Stanley, a bank, forecasts that within two years Amazon’s nascent video-ad business will be worth more than $5bn a year in America alone, and that in the long run its superior intel on its viewers could allow it to charge higher rates for its ads than any other video platform.That ability will become more valuable as viewing shifts to streaming. Ads on internet-connected television make up about a third of tv ad spending in America. As that share rises, a “pot of gold” awaits sellers of digital advertising, says a former Amazon executive. What’s more, points out Mr Lipsman, “When you introduce data, it transforms markets.” tv ads are reckoned to be among the most effective, but their impact is hard to measure. As advertisers gain the ability to see how customers respond to their commercials, the tv advertising market, currently worth about $90bn a year in America, stands to grow, with the lion’s share going to the companies that offer the best measurement.Streaming’s new landlordAmazon’s second approach to making video pay is to sell viewers not just its own output but other companies’ content, too. Whereas viewers opening Netflix or Disney+ see only shows on those platforms, those opening Prime Video are offered content from a range of other streamers. If a customer subscribes to another service via Prime, or buys or rents a show, Amazon takes a cut, reckoned to be between 20% and 50%. When a viewer watches a free channel via Prime, Amazon takes a slice of the ad revenue or sells its own ads in some of the channel’s slots.Tom Harrington of Enders Analysis, a research firm, likens the approach to Amazon’s strategy in retail. The company began by selling its own products, before opening its marketplace to other traders. These days two-thirds of sales on Amazon.com are made by third parties, with Amazon taking a commission—a much higher-margin business than selling its own wares. Its aim is to be the same kind of “landlord” in video, believes Mr Harrington.This analysis sheds light on the purpose of big-budget shows like “Citadel”. Amazon continues to stock its e-commerce site with first-party products, to maintain price competition and ensure that the marketplace has a broad enough offering to keep customers returning. Prime Video content plays a similar role: high-profile shows and live sports—something not available from most other streamers—get people to open the app, while guaranteeing them a wide range of content to choose from. “The real question isn’t how many people watched ‘Rings of Power’,” says Mr Harrington. “It’s how many people went into Prime because of ‘Rings of Power’…and then [spent] more on other content.”Amazon seems to be succeeding in getting people to spend time on its platform. Although few of its shows break into the top ten individually, Nielsen’s figures show that Prime Video’s share of streaming in America—about 8.9% of hours watched in July—is about 70% greater than that of Disney+, and more than twice that of Max.Becoming a content landlord is not easy. Amazon’s bargaining power over suppliers is weaker in video, where there are a few big studios with their own direct-to-consumer offerings, than in e-commerce, where millions of tiny sellers use its marketplace. Amazon’s hold over consumers is weaker, too: whereas the company accounts for nearly 40% of e-commerce sales in America, its Fire tv platform handles only about 15% of streaming traffic there.Still, the company is carving out ways of making money in an industry drowning in losses. Amazon may not dominate the Emmys, or Nielsen’s top ten. But, says a former executive, its chief aims in video are for people to watch tv through its hardware, to buy content through its store, and to watch commercials served by Amazon advertising. Even if “Citadel” remains a critical flop, it may have done its job.■ More

The gun industry is finding its footing after sliding from a record-setting sales streak during the pandemic.
Top manufacturers have had to slow down production and slash prices to retain profits.
Many in the industry are banking on newer weapons and better marketing strategies to woo consumers.

People fire an assortment of guns at the annual Machine Gun Shoot sponsored by Shooters Gauntlet on June 03, 2023 in Monroe, Pennsylvania. The shoot, which has been held since 2016, lets gun enthusiast and others shoot machine guns at targets in a controlled and secure wooded location.
Spencer Platt | Getty Images

The gun industry is finding its footing after a post-pandemic sales slump forced some of the largest manufacturers roll back production.
In July, Americans bought an estimated 1.19 million guns, down 17% from the previous July, according to FBI data analyzed by gun watchdog site The Trace.

However, while fewer firearms are being sold across the U.S, the business is still profitable as manufacturers adapt to meet changing consumer demand, develop a new generation of weapons, and employ marketing strategies that increasingly resonate with younger, more diverse consumers.
Gun makers, in turn, such as Smith & Wesson and Sturm, Ruger & Company have seen their declines stabilize. Smith & Wesson shares are up about 40% so far this year, while Sturm, Ruger is up 2%.
They’re assuring investors that their business models have weathered the slowdown and that a handful of positive trends will help the industry rebound.
Here are four trends that are shaping the gun industry today:

Market normalization

Several companies in the gun market are slowing down production and slashing prices as they combat material cost increases and waning demand for their weapons.

During the pandemic, more Americans than ever purchased firearms. In 2020, at the height of the sales boom, new gun ownership rates hit a record 21 million, according to trade group National Shooting Sports Foundation. NSSF uses FBI data and background checks to estimate new gun ownership rates.
However, by 2022, feelings of insecurity and instability experienced by many Americans amid the pandemic subsided, and so did the surge in firearms sales. Gun purchases that year fell to 16.4 million, which is more akin to pre-pandemic numbers.
“The industry’s bottomed-out and has stabilized,” Aegis Capital analyst Rommel Dionisio told CNBC.
Smith & Wesson, the country’s largest firearms manufacturer by revenue, reported fourth quarter net sales of $144.8 million, a 20% decrease from comparable quarter last year.
On a conference call with investors, CEO Mark Smith said the company is “adjusting production rates to match normalizing demand patterns.” Smith added that “focused consumer promotions” have helped the company maintain its leading market share and retain profits.
In its most recent earnings report, Sturm, Ruger & Company reported flat sales for its second quarter amid softening demand for some of its most popular product categories like its polymer pistols.
However, the company’s bottom line during the second quarter, while down from the prior-year period, improved from the first quarter.
CEO Christopher J. Killoy said the company will “continue to adjust our level of production and product mix to better align our output with current, and expected, consumer demand.”
“It’s not really going down from here,” Aegis Capital’s Dionisio said. The industry, if anything, may even begin to ramp up production if there’s another surge in demand brought about by the 2024 presidential election. Gun sales typically see a spike during presidential elections, Dionisio added.

Smart guns

The next generation of firearms appear to be on the horizon: lightweight, cost-effective weapons that incorporate advanced technology and some safety features.
Gun startups like Biofire Technologies are leading the charge with its 9mm handgun handgun that utilizes facial recognition and fingerprint verification technology to operate. CEO and founder Kai Kloepfer said the smart-gun, which is the first to come to market after years of failed attempts by other companies, can help reduce accidental firings and suicides.
“When you pick the firearm up, it uses either your fingerprint or your face to unlock, so only an authorized user can fire it,” Kloepfer told CNBC.
Kloepfer said thousands have already placed preorders online, with some models selling out. Biofire said it cannot share specifics around the volumes produced since it is somewhat “sensitive competitively.”
Their guns retail between $1,499 and $1,899. When they ship in December, they’ll become the first smart guns to enter U.S. circulation. Investors in Biofire include venture capitalist Ron Conway and Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund
Biofire’s smart gun comes as gun manufacturers increasingly look for different materials and technologies to make their products more appealing to consumers.
Mark Oliva, an executive at the National Shooting Sports Foundation, said red dot sights have become a popular accessory among consumers in recent years.
An alternative to the more traditional iron sight, which requires shooters to look through an optical telescope for aim, red dot sights project a small light directly onto a target.
“My eyes aren’t getting any better,” said Oliva, “so I’m one of the people who’s switched over to using a red dot sight on my handgun.”
Oliva also said the industry is turning towards more lightweight materials such as polymer to make slimmer, more durable guns that are cheaper than metal or steel alternatives. These days, said Oliva, polymer can be found in every type of modern firearm, including those produced by startup Biofire.
Anti-firearm violence nonprofit Everytown for Gun Safety sees the positive potential in smart guns.
“Smart guns can ensure that guns are accessible by their owners and no one else,” said Nick Suplina, senior vice president for law and policy at Everytown, who has tested Biofire’s smart gun. “Gun manufacturers now have a viable road map for innovating towards safety — and it’s on them to act.”

Changing demographics

The pandemic-era sales boom for firearms showed the face of gun ownership in the U.S. is changing.
Of the 7.5 million Americans who bought guns for the first time between January 2019 and April 2021, half were female, a fifth were Black, and another fifth were Hispanic, according to a study by Matthew Miller, a professor of health sciences and epidemiology at Northeastern.
By contrast, gun owners overall are 63% male and 73% white, the study found.
Another study by NORC at the University of Chicago noted similar trends.
First-time gun purchasers during the pandemic, according to the study, were younger than previous, pre-pandemic U.S. gun owners.
Eighty-six percent of first-time gun buyers during the pandemic were younger than 45. Prior to the pandemic, 41% of all gun owners were under 45, according to NORC. The group began tracking this data in March 2020.
“The idea that gun owners are only old, male and pale isn’t holding true,” NSSF’s Oliva told CNBC. “Today’s gun buyers are more representative of America.”

Self protection

Gun owners are increasingly ranking personal protection as the top reason for buying a firearm.
Nearly three-quarters of U.S. gun owners cited protection more than any other factor as the main reason they own a gun, according to a 2023 Pew Research center survey.
The survey found respondents cited other factors such as hunting and sport shooting at 30% and 32%, respectively.
In 2017, when the survey was last conducted, 67% of respondents cited protection as a major reason for owning a firearm.
This increase is consistent with how gun culture has evolved over the last few decades, according to a 2020 survey by online academic journal Palgrave Communications.
Many manufacturers, especially amid the social upheaval experienced within the U.S. over the last few years, have moved away from themes of hunting and recreation to advertise their guns, and have instead leaned into themes of personal protection and self defense to reach consumers.
“Although we recognize the continuing existence of various subcultures of guns in the U.S., these changes suggest the movement of self-defense to the core of American gun culture today,” authors for the study said. “With this shift, previously dominant subcultures like hunting and recreational target shooting have become more marginal.”
This is also consistent with what types of guns have risen in popularity. Oliva said he’s been seeing gun buyers gravitate towards handguns, such as semiautomatic pistols or “glocks,” which are more compact, easily concealed and designed for self defense. More

More workers across industries have taken a hard stance against companies for dramatic improvements in compensation and working conditions.
More than 320,000 workers have participated in at least 230 strikes so far this year, according to data from the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations.
UPS workers and airline pilots have won rich labor deals. Hollywood writers and actors as well as auto workers could be next.

Members of the United Auto Workers union hold a rally and practice picket near a Stellantis plant in Detroit, Aug. 23, 2023.
Michael Wayland / CNBC

From writers’ rooms to car factories, workers are pressing companies for higher pay and better quality of life. Many are willing to walk off the job to get there, and some are winning.
Emboldened in the wake of shifting job security and grueling conditions during the Covid-19 pandemic, skyrocketing company profits, inflation, a decades-high approval rating for labor unions and growing disparity between worker pay and executive compensation, more workers across industries have taken a hard stance against companies for dramatic improvements in compensation and working conditions.

Some, like UPS’ workers’ union, are nailing down record labor deals following threats of striking. Others have gone on strike to force the issue. Workers at key Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems in June approved a deal with the company after a brief work stoppage. Writers Guild of America members have now been on strike for more than 100 days.
The rich contracts and work stoppages in recent months follow high-profile organizing efforts by workers across the country that started prior to the Covid-19 pandemic and have grown increasingly more intense following the global health crisis, affecting companies from Amazon and Starbucks to airlines and automakers.
“The pandemic shook the ground of everybody,” said Robert Bruno, director of the Labor Studies Program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Striking Writers Guild of America workers picket outside Paramount Studios in Los Angeles, July 12, 2023.
Mario Tama | Getty Images

More than 320,000 workers have participated in at least 230 strikes so far this year, according to data from the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations. That’s already higher than the roughly 224,000 workers who participated in roughly 420 strikes in 2022, due in large part to tens of thousands of striking workers with the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and Writers Guild of America.
“Major” strikes involving 1,000 or more workers so far amount to just 16 such work stoppages this year, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That compares to a recent high of 25 recorded major work stoppages in 2019 and 23 last year.

The actions have led to more organizing efforts and greater support by Americans for organized labor. Gallup reports 71% of Americans approved of labor unions in 2022 — the highest since 1965.

There’s potentially more striking ahead.
The United Auto Workers is in the middle of national contract negotiations for nearly 150,000 workers with General Motors, Ford Motor and Stellantis, with an 11:59 p.m. Sept. 14 deadline fast approaching.
“I don’t want to strike, but I will. I will absolutely,” said Daniel “Chris” Wells, a Stellantis employee and UAW member of about three years. “Whatever it takes to get what we need and what we deserve.”
UAW President Shawn Fain on Friday said the union’s goal is not to strike, but that it will do so to win a “fair and just contract.” However, the pugnacious union leader has been more combative and quicker to use strike rhetoric than previous union leaders.

Big contracts

Many of the work stoppages so far this year have led to major victories for union members.
Following strikes against companies such as Deere and CNH Industrial, the UAW achieved much of what it was demanding: double-digit wage gains, addition or improvements of pensions and restoration of cost-of-living adjustments.

Daniel “Chris” Wells, a Stellantis employee and United Auto Workers member of about three years, stands with UAW President Shawn Fain during a union rally in Detroit, Aug. 23, 2023.
Michael Wayland / CNBC

It’s now calling for similar improvements from the Detroit automakers, following other high-profile collective bargaining wins elsewhere in the country.
UPS workers on Tuesday ratified a massive five-year labor deal that includes big wage increases and other improvements to work rules and schedules. The company’s drivers — represented by the Teamsters Union, which represents about 340,000 workers at the delivery giant — will average $170,000 in pay and benefits at the end of the five-year deal.
“It’s like this perfect storm for workers,” said Melissa Atkins, a labor and employment partner at Obermayer. “Individuals are living paycheck to paycheck, and right now they have the bargaining power.”

Pilots at Delta Air Lines and American Airlines have ratified contracts worth billions, following months of pickets and strike authorization votes, though pilot strikes are extremely rare and require a long process under U.S. labor law. A pilot shortage has given unions more leverage in labor negotiations.
United Airlines struck a preliminary agreement with its pilots union last month for up to 40% raises over four years. The deal prompted American Airlines to raise its offer for its own pilots.
In airlines, the contract wins are partly the result of a years-long buildup. Airline unions were just starting industry-wide negotiations when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, derailing contract talks. Many employees such as pilots and flight attendants hadn’t received raises since their contracted pay increases had expired, even though inflation rose.
Meanwhile, unions complained of grueling schedules, faulting airline management for flight disruptions.
While airlines received $54 billion in taxpayer aid to keep workers in their jobs during the pandemic, carriers urged thousands to take early retirement packages that left them flat-footed when travel demand returned.

In Hollywood, performers and scribes are pushing for higher wages and better backend payouts, tied to the success of streaming. Many have called out often pitiful royalty payments for episodes of a show or a movie that take off on streaming, such as the recent interest in “Suits” on Netflix.
Writers are also pushing for compensation throughout the process of pre-production, production and post-production, a relative rarity in the industry now.
In striking, writers and actors have not only halted production, but have hindered marketing efforts as well. Talent is not permitted to promote any current, future or past work that was part of a studio production, leading some theatrical releases such as Warner Bros. Discovery and Legendary Entertainment’s “Dune: Part Two” to flee to 2024.

More than pay

It’s not just higher pay that workers are seeking, but an increase in their quality of life, particularly in the wake of pandemic working conditions.
“For unionized workers who are going on strike, it’s the first contract that many of them are negotiating since the beginning of the pandemic,” said Johnnie Kallas, a Ph.D. candidate and project director for Cornell’s ILR Labor Action Tracker. “While a lot of the issues that workers are striking about are certainly not new, the pandemic definitely exacerbated a lot of them.”
Hollywood talent are looking for studios to implement new rules including minimum staffing requirements for writers as well as audition provisions, better working conditions and better health and pension benefits for actors. Both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA are also asking for guardrails when it comes to the use of artificial intelligence within the industry.

Tensions continue to rise between the two guilds and Hollywood studios. The writers’ union and studios have returned to the negotiating table, though with little progress. Negotiations with SAG-AFTRA are likely to wait until WGA talks are settled.
Southwest Airlines is still in negotiations with its pilots’ union, which has made better scheduling a core part of negotiations. Casey Murray, president of the Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, said frequent reassignments can wear pilots down, just as they would passengers.
“They need that predictability,” he said, adding that the company has made some progress in talks with the pilots’ union in recent weeks. He said he is “cautiously optimistic” about reaching a preliminary deal this year, the last of the four largest U.S. carriers to get to that point.
Regaining control of their schedules has been a common theme at several companies, including UPS’ Teamsters-negotiated deal. The union won limitations on forced overtime.
“There’s an expectation that pay will substantially go up” when workers have more leverage, said UIUC’s Bruno. “But it’s also a chance to recraft the job.”

He said it’s not only about the number of hours worked but “having a voice in the number of hours” on the schedule and other aspects of how an employee’s job is done.
The UAW has targeted improving work-life balance for union members, many of whom are forced to work overtime or potentially lose their jobs. The union has proposed a 32-hour work week to even out circumstances with salaried employees.
“They say the financial people are college educated, well you know what I say to that, big f***ing deal,” UAW President Fain said during a rally last week with hundreds of members. “Our members were deemed essential during Covid. If we didn’t show up, we lost our damn jobs. Our members were expected to risk their lives and some of them sacrificed their lives, to keep the economy moving during these times — while the ‘educated’ people, sat safely in their living rooms working remote.
“We deserve the same treatment. Our lives matter, too,” he said.
Tony Jordan, an auto repairman and UAW member of more than two decades, works 60 hours a week at a Stellantis plant in Detroit. He said his priorities are maintaining the union’s platinum health care, pay increases and the potential 32-hour work week for more time to spend with his new grandchild.
He said he views these talks as a fight for the union’s “long-term viability.”
“Why not fight now? Not only for us, but the working class,” he said.
— CNBC’s Sarah Whitten contributed to this report. More

It’s been 10 months since the Food and Drug Administration first announced a nationwide shortage of Adderall — and the supply strain could potentially worsen in the months ahead.
Some experts noted they’re concerned about market conditions as children, who are commonly affected by ADHD, head back to school. 
It’s nearly impossible to know when the shortages will end — or what exactly can be done to resolve them — because of the lack of transparency in the pharmaceutical industry. 

Ten milligram tablets of the hyperactivity drug, Adderall, made by Shire Plc.
Jb Reed | Bloomberg | Getty Images

It’s been 10 months since the Food and Drug Administration first announced a nationwide shortage of Adderall — one of the most widely used medications for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder — and the supply strain could potentially worsen in the months ahead.
While some supply issues have improved, many Americans are still struggling to find and fill prescriptions for the drug and other medications for ADHD that they often rely on to stay focused and complete daily tasks.

Drug-shortage experts told CNBC that it’s extremely difficult to forecast how much longer the shortages will last because of the lack of transparency in the pharmaceutical industry — and some are concerned about market conditions as children, who are commonly affected by ADHD, head back to school. 
“Unfortunately, we might see the shortage worsen. We are heading into back-to-school time, so I am worried about it worsening as we go into that season,” Erin Fox, a pharmacist at the University of Utah and leading expert on U.S. drug shortages, told CNBC.
Adderall is one of more than 300 drugs in short supply in the U.S. as of June, according to a list from the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, which represents pharmacists in a variety of health-care settings. That list also includes Adderall alternatives like methylphenidate, which is commonly known under the brand names Ritalin or Concerta. 
Adderall and alternative ADHD medications apart from other drugs are Schedule 2 controlled substances. 
That means the federal government regulates how those drugs are made, prescribed and dispensed because they’ve been deemed to have a high potential for abuse and could potentially lead to severe psychological or physical dependence. The designation also means that patients need to get new prescriptions for those drugs every one to three months. 

Millions of Americans in the U.S. use the drugs to help them concentrate, control their impulses and manage their schoolwork, employment or relationships with others. ADHD is usually diagnosed in childhood and often lasts into adulthood.
An estimated 6 million children have been diagnosed with ADHD, and 60% were being treated with medication as of 2016, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Meanwhile, around 8 million adults have been diagnosed with the condition, but only about a quarter of that number are getting treatment for it.

Back-to-school supply strain 

Many children and young adults with ADHD often take the summer off medication and primarily rely on it during the school year. That could lead to even more demand in the months ahead that may not be met. 
Historically, prescriptions for ADHD medications increase as the school semester starts around the U.S. — and “there is no indication this year will be different,” according to David Margraf, a pharmaceutical research scientist at the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy. 
Some drugmakers have said they expect to resupply a few ADHD products in August or September, according to an FDA database on shortages. But Margraf said “we need to be cautiously optimistic” because drugmakers don’t disclose exact numbers of how much stock they’ll have available by then. 

30mg tablets of Shire Plc’s Adderall XR.
Jb Reed | Bloomberg | Getty Images

That reflects a bigger issue with the ongoing shortages. It’s nearly impossible to know when they will end — or what exactly can be done to resolve them — because of the lack of transparency in the pharmaceutical industry. 
“Very little factual information is out there. I think this is one of the biggest issues,” says Ozlem Ergun, a mechanical- and industrial-engineering professor at Northeastern University and an expert in pharmaceutical supply chains. “When you don’t have transparency or information sharing, how can you understand and resolve a problem that is complex?” 
“This really, really hurts the users and the hospitals and the health-care system. They have pretty much no vision of what the future looks like,” Ergun added.  
Teva Pharmaceuticals, Amneal Pharmaceuticals, Novartis’s planned spinoff Sandoz and Purdue Pharma subsidiary Rhodes Pharmaceuticals, which all manufacture drugs targeting ADHD, don’t need to publicly share information about where they manufacture medications, how much of them they make, where ingredients are sourced and their overall production capacities. 
And the Drug Enforcement Administration — the federal agency that regulates controlled substances — shares little information about the production quotas it sets for each manufacturer of Adderall and other ADHD medications.
The DEA specifically limits the amount of raw ingredients, such as amphetamine, a drugmaker can get to manufacture those drugs.
“We don’t have the quota amount that each company is given. And we also don’t have the amount that each company is actually producing and if they’re meeting those quotas,” said Fox of the University of Utah. “There’s no way to understand which company maybe isn’t doing the job and which companies are, so we just don’t know exactly what’s going on.” 

Production limitations

Ending the shortages of Adderall and other ADHD medications is no easy task.
“It’s not as simple as a free market where you just boost up production and meet demand,” said Michael Ganio, the senior director of pharmacy practice at the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. 
Many manufacturing plants operate at or near capacity and create multiple drug products. That means increasing the production of one drug could potentially require reducing production — and potentially impacting supply — of another drug, according to Ergun. 
“In general, it is difficult to increase the manufacturing capacity for a drug,” she said. “There isn’t much unutilized capacity anywhere.”
It’s even harder to scale up the production of tightly controlled ADHD medications.
Drugmakers can request for the DEA to increase their production quotas if necessary, but it takes “a lot of push” for the agency to actually approve that, according to Margraf. 
And even if the DEA does approve a quote change, it could take months to do so: “It’s not just flipping a switch and boosting your output by 20%,” ASHP’s Ganio said. 

Members of the Drug Enforcement Administration raided two homes side-by-side, in an assumed illegal marijuana operation, on January 31, 2019 in Commerce City, Colorado.
RJ Sangosti | MediaNews Group | The Denver Post via Getty Images

Some drugmakers have suggested that DEA quotas are contributing to the ADHD medication shortages or making it harder to alleviate them. That includes Aytu BioPharma, which makes an ADHD drug that used to be in shortage. 
In a CNBC op-ed in February, Aytu CEO Josh Disbrow said the DEA could potentially cause widespread drug shortages if it underestimates demand and fails to increase quotas in a “timely manner in response to new information.” 
However, the DEA and FDA pointed to a different problem in a joint letter released earlier this month. 
The agencies said an internal analysis found that drugmakers fell 30% short of meeting the full quota for amphetamine medications in 2022, leaving about 1 billion potential drug doses on the table. They added that there’s a “similar trend” occurring this year. 
The DEA and FDA said they called on manufacturers to confirm they are working to increase production to meet their allotted quotas.
“There’s obviously a lot of finger-pointing going on here between the agencies and manufacturers,” Fox said. 

Surging demand for Adderall

The shortages of Adderall and generic versions of the drug kicked off last August, when major manufacturers reported that their medications were on back-order. 
Manufacturers are required to notify the FDA of a shortage, but not the cause of the interruption. However, the FDA pointed to “ongoing intermittent manufacturing delays” at Teva when it first announced the Adderall shortage. 
Teva previously said the manufacturing slowdown was partly tied to a labor shortage, which was quickly resolved. Teva did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment about the state of its Adderall manufacturing. 
A surge in demand for Adderall and other ADHD medications seems to have played a significant role, too. 
U.S. prescriptions for Adderall rocketed to 41.4 million in 2021, a more than 10% increase from 2020, according to IQVIA, a health industry analytics firm. 
One possible factor sending demand up, according to experts, was the increased use of telehealth services during the Covid public health emergency that may have allowed for more relaxed prescribing standards for ADHD medications.
The pandemic also created a perfect storm of distractions — such as the shift to remote work and a thrum of anxiety, stress and grief over the uncertainty of Covid — that may have exacerbated some ADHD patients’ symptoms or convinced more people that they have the condition, prompting them to seek treatment. 
The increased demand for Adderall amid shortages of the drug likely resulted in a domino effect, too, with health-care providers and patients being driven to turn to alternative medications, triggering shortages of those drugs as well. More

SpaceX launched four people to the International Space Station from Florida as Elon Musk’s company begins its 11th human spaceflight mission to date.
Known as Crew-7, the mission for NASA will bring the group up to the space station for a six-month stay in orbit.
The mission brings the number of astronauts SpaceX has launched to 42 since its first crewed launch in May 2020.

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket with the company’s Crew Dragon spacecraft on top is seen after sunset at Launch Complex 39A ahead of the launch of the Crew-7 mission.
Joel Kowsky / NASA

SpaceX launched four people to the International Space Station from Florida as Elon Musk’s company begins its 11th human spaceflight mission to date.
Known as Crew-7, the mission for NASA will bring the group up to the space station for a six-month stay in orbit. The mission is SpaceX’s sixth operational crew launch for NASA to date, and the first of the additional missions the agency awarded SpaceX.

Crew-7 launched in the early hours of Saturday morning from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, beginning a nearly one day journey to the ISS.

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The mission brings the number of astronauts SpaceX has launched to 42, including both government and private missions, since its first crewed launch in May 2020.
Crew-7 consists of NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli as the commander, European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen from Denmark as the pilot, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Satoshi Furukawa and Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov as mission specialists.

(From L) Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov, European Space Agency astronaut Andreas Mogensen, NASA astronaut Jasmin Moghbeli, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Satoshi Furukawa, wearing SpaceX spacesuits wave as they prepare to board the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft for the Crew-7 mission launch, at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on Aug. 26, 2023.
Gregg Newton | AFP | Getty Images

SpaceX launched the astronauts in its Crew Dragon capsule called Endurance, on top of a Falcon 9 rocket. Both the rocket and capsule are reusable, with the Endurance flying on its third mission to date.
The company is under contract for 14 missions under NASA’s Commercial Crew program.
SpaceX developed its Crew Dragon spacecraft and fine-tuned its Falcon 9 rocket under NASA’s program, competing against Boeing’s Starliner capsule. But Boeing’s capsule remains in development, with costly delays putting the start of operational Starliner flights years behind schedule. More

The Professional Pickleball Association and Major League Pickleball are now at odds after announcing in November that they would join forces and merge team competition leagues.
The PPA told CNBC that MLP has not yet signed the partnership deal they verbally agreed to 10 months ago.
In the last year, MLP has seen continued growth with new, high-profile ownership groups, growing team valuations, new sponsorships and media deals.

Season One Super Finals at the Life Time Rancho San Clemente in San Clemente, California. The Seattle Pioneers play the Los Angeles Mad Drops in the Premier League mixed doubles competition.
Source: Major League Pickleball

There’s trouble in pickleball paradise.
The Professional Pickleball Association and Major League Pickleball are now at odds after announcing in November that they would join forces and merge team competition leagues.

The PPA told CNBC that MLP has not yet signed the partnership deal they verbally agreed to 10 months ago. PPA owner Tom Dundon and MLP owner Steve Kuhn had agreed to operate the joint league under the MLP brand name and format. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed at the time.
“I don’t know what Steve Kuhn’s intentions were the entire time,” Connor Pardoe, PPA Tour CEO told CNBC. “I don’t know if he led us down a road to get access to our players to try to be in a stronger position here later.”
Pardoe claims MLP executives have recently gone radio silent. He also said PPA was made aware by some of its players that MLP had begun reaching out with lucrative offers. He said PPA would consider litigation if MLP were to improperly poach players.
Kuhn told CNBC that there are “numerous misrepresentations of reality” taking place, without providing specifics.
On Thursday, MLP announced it has begun to sign top players to multi-year, guaranteed contacts. The deals include a player off-season and enhanced financial security.

“We think this is a great thing that will make MLP more valuable. So we’ll make the players lives more successful and better. And we’ll also continue to elevate the sport and help the sport grow,” said Kuhn.
He said if the PPA is willing to pay their players more, he’s willing to talk about aligning with the league.
“We asked the PPA to join us in paying players more, and their reaction was that we pay the players too much,” Kuhn told CNBC.
In the last year, MLP has seen continued growth with new, high-profile ownership groups, growing team valuations, new sponsorships and media deals. In July, MLP announced Julio DePietro was taking over as CEO. He took over negotiations of this deal from Zubin Mehta, who resigned from the board.
The competing leagues have had a complicated relationship.
The PPA historically has acted as a tour-style league for the best players in the world. Two  years ago, Kuhn introduced team style pickleball. Since then, the two leagues have operated independently. More

Wegovy, the popular weight loss drug from Novo Nordisk, significantly reduced symptoms of a common type of heart failure in patients with obesity, according to a late-stage clinical trial.
The treatment also resulted in lower blood pressure and reductions in inflammation – two important markers of heart health. 
The results add to Wegovy’s growing list of potential health benefits beyond shedding unwanted pounds, which could potentially lead to increased coverage by insurers. 

A selection of injector pens for the Wegovy weight loss drug are shown in this photo illustration in Chicago, Illinois, March 31, 2023.
Jim Vondruska | Reuters

Wegovy, the popular weight loss drug from Novo Nordisk, significantly reduced symptoms of a common type of heart failure in patients with obesity, according to a late-stage clinical trial released Friday. 
Wegovy helped alleviate symptoms like shortness of breath, fatigue, swelling in the legs and irregular heart beat. It also resulted in lower blood pressure and reductions in inflammation – two important markers of heart health. 

The results add to Wegovy’s growing list of potential health benefits beyond shedding unwanted pounds. That could potentially lead to expanded use of the drug and increased coverage by insurers. The results also complement the groundbreaking trial data Novo Nordisk released earlier this month, which found that Wegovy slashed the risk of serious heart-related problems by 20%. 
“We look forward to working closely with the clinical community and regulators to help realise this potential over the coming months,” Martin Lange, Novo Nordisk’s head of development, said in a release. He was referring to the heart health benefits observed in both trials. 
The new study on 529 obese patients focused on a heart condition known as preserved ejection fraction, or HFpEF – a condition that comprises roughly half of all heart failure cases in the U.S. and occurs when the heart’s lower chamber pumps less blood than the body needs.
An estimated 2.5 million people in the U.S. have that condition and more than 80% of those patients also have obesity. 
The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that Wegovy led to a nearly 17-point improvement on a 100-point scale that’s used to assess symptoms of HFpEF. 

By comparison, patients who received a placebo had a 9-point improvement.
Wegovy also led to improvements in physical limitations: Patients who took the drug were able to walk further in six minutes than those in the placebo group. 
Those on Wegovy also lost about 13% of their body weight, compared with 2.6% for those on a placebo, over the course of the year-long trial.
There were fewer serious safety events in patients who took Wegovy compared with those who took the placebo. But more patients stopped taking Wegovy because of gastrointestinal issues, which are commonly observed with other weight loss drugs. 

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One limitation of the trial was its lack of diversity: 96% of the participants were white.
Wegovy and Novo Nordisk’s diabetes drug Ozempic sparked a weight loss industry gold rush last year for helping patients lose unwanted weight. They are part of a class of drugs called GLP-1 agonists, which mimic a hormone produced in the gut to suppress a person’s appetite. 
But Novo Nordisk is grappling with supply constraints that have led to shortages of both drugs. 
There are also recent reports of patients who had suicidal and self-harm thoughts after taking Wegovy and other weight loss drugs, which raised questions about the unintended and potentially life-threatening side effects of the treatments More

UAW members overwhelmingly granted union leaders authorization to call strikes during ongoing contract negotiations with GM, Ford and Stellantis, if warranted.
The “strike authorization vote” is part of the union’s constitution and viewed as a procedural step in the negotiations.
UAW President Shawn Fain has been far more vocal than past union leaders about its ability to use work stoppages as a weapon in its arsenal against the companies during the negotiations.

Striking United Auto Workers members and supporters attend a speech by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders outside General Motors’ Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant on Sept. 25, 2019 in Detroit.
Michael Wayland / CNBC

DETROIT – United Auto Workers members overwhelmingly granted union leaders authorization to call strikes during ongoing contract negotiations with General Motors, Ford Motor and Stellantis, if warranted.
The union on Friday said an average of 97% of combined members at the automakers approved the action, however final votes are still being tallied. That’s in line with support during negotiations four years ago, when 96% of workers who voted supported authorization for a strike.

The “strike authorization vote” is part of the union’s constitution and viewed as a procedural step in the negotiations. The voting results are historically high in support of the authorization. The vote does not mean there will or will not be a strike.
“Our goal is not to strike. I want to make that very clear. Our goal is to bargain good agreements for our members,” UAW President Shawn Fain said Friday during a Facebook Live. “But all we’ve tried to do with this is prepare everybody in the event that we have to take action to get a fair and just contract.”
However, Fain has been far more vocal than past union leaders about its ability to use striking as a weapon in its arsenal against the companies during the negotiations.
“The Big Three is our strike target. And whether or not there’s a strike — it’s up to Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, because they know what our priorities are. We’ve been clear,” Fain has said.

UAW President Shawn Fain (right) speaks with union member Jerome Buckley outside of General Motors’ Factory Zero plant on July 12, 2023, in Detroit.
Michael Wayland / CNBC

Those priorities are far richer than during prior contract negotiations between the two sides. The union’s demands include a 46% wage increase, restoration of traditional pensions, cost-of-living increases, reducing the workweek to 32 hours from 40 and increasing retiree benefits.

The UAW said 98% of hourly workers and 99% of salaried workers at Ford voted in favor of the strike authorization. GM passed by 96%, while the action was approved at Stellantis by 95%. Voter turnout and how many votes still needed to be counted was not immediately available.
Strikes could take various forms, including a national strike, where all workers under the contract cease working, or targeted work stoppages at certain plants over local contract issues. A strike against all three automakers, as Fain has alluded to, would be the most impactful but also the riskiest and most costly for the union.
The UAW has more than $825 million in its strike fund, which it uses to pay eligible members who are on strike. The strike pay is $500 per week for each member — up from $275 per week last year.
Assuming 150,000 or so UAW members covered by the contracts, strike pay would cost the union about $75 million per week. A fund of $825 million, then, would cover about 11 weeks. One caveat: that doesn’t include health-care costs that the union would cover, such as temporary COBRA plans, that would likely drain the fund far more quickly.
National or targeted strikes at any of the automakers could be detrimental to business. A 40-day strike against GM during the last round of negotiations in 2019 led to a production loss of 300,000 vehicles, the company said at the time. It also cost the automaker $3.6 billion in earnings, GM said. More