Employee Safety

Our approach to employee safety spans the full scope of our operations - from culture and leadership practices that set expectations across the organization, to the measurement systems we use to track performance, and the targeted programs we maintain for our highest-consequence risks. We continuously evaluate and refine these programs, recognizing that safety performance requires sustained attention rather than one-time initiatives. All employees are required to complete routine training on health, safety and environmental (HSE) programs, including general HSE training, as well as training on industry-specific and job-specific procedures and emergency preparedness.

How We Build and Measure a Safety Culture

We have established safety priorities connected to developing safety leadership capabilities, reducing our most significant risks, and managing business continuity. We evaluate progress through safety leadership questions within our company employee surveys and through a well-recognized model (DSS+ Bradley Curve™) for measuring advancements in safety cultural maturity across the organization.

We measure both leading and lagging indicators when assessing our overall safety performance. Leading indicators - such as ergonomic risk, safety culture scores, and precursors for life-altering and fatality risks - allow us to identify and address emerging risks before they result in real injury. We use these in conjunction with lagging indicators, such as our injury rates, to assess our safety programs comprehensively and direct resources where they are most needed.

We strive to achieve zero injuries with a focus on continuous improvement and monitor performance to ensure we are focused on the most impactful areas. We track and report injuries as required by local regulations (e.g., OSHA); however, for internally tracked injury metrics, we use the severe injury rate metric based on the ASTM E2920-14 Standard Guide for Recording Occupational Injuries and Illnesses. This metric is applied globally and provides insights into our safety program performance.

Preventing Life-Altering Injury and Fatalities

Overall injury rate reductions do not necessarily correlate to fewer life-altering injuries and fatalities. For this reason, our safety programs and continuous improvement initiatives prioritize injury prevention across facility operations, with focused efforts on manufacturing environments and motor vehicle risks.

Over the last several years, we have applied a concentrated focus on our Life-altering Injury and Fatality Elimination (LIFE) program. LIFE near-miss events and key learnings are shared broadly through our HSE Alert process, and data are used to identify and implement risk reductions across the organization. We regularly benchmark with peer companies to share events and methods for controlling these risks.  Consistent with the hierarchy of controls, we have expanded safety design criteria for new and existing facilities, and our manufacturing sites have continued to implement advanced engineering and automation controls and process monitoring analytics for proactive event prevention. Near-miss data are collected and shared, and mitigation techniques are standardized where appropriate.

Process Safety Management

Some pharmaceutical manufacturing processes use hazardous chemicals subject to process safety management standards established by the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, state agencies and EU directives and regulations. More than two decades ago, we developed a globally integrated process safety management (GIPSM) program to manage these risks. Process safety management is integrated within product development and manufacturing processes through hazard analysis and risk elimination, procedural and training requirements, change management oversight, and other controls designed to minimize the risk of a catastrophic event.

Motor Vehicle Safety

Many of our employees in field-based roles spend significant time driving to interface with customers, exposing them to collisions and injury risk. We maintain a motor vehicle safety program including driver training, collision monitoring and analysis, and coaching support for high-risk drivers. We also require the use of vehicle safety features, enforce a global policy restricting the use of mobile electronic devices while driving, and operate country-specific driver safety programs. These efforts have contributed to a decrease in collisions and motor vehicle-related injuries over time.

Reducing Everyday Risk in the Workplace  

Our ergonomics program is designed to reduce risk across office, laboratory, and manufacturing environments. The program includes educational resources and equipment, connects employees to ergonomic experts, and best practices across the organization. Employees can complete an online assessment tool to identify and reduce their ergonomic risk, and we provide remote employees with home office equipment and ergonomic accessories. Additionally, we promote the use of a computer software that prompts employees to take pauses and safety breaks based on computer use and enables employees and their supervisors to monitor ergonomic risk level.

Safety Beyond Our Own Workforce

Our contractor safety management program starts with the objective of compliance with all regulations in the jurisdictions in which we work, but our approach goes beyond compliance. We employ strict qualification criteria for contractors before they are awarded work and, once they are selected, require ongoing job-specific training. Throughout all projects, we emphasize that safety takes precedence over cost and schedule, and we stress job-specific task planning, continuous recognition of changing conditions, and safety observation reporting.

In 2025, we had zero fatalities. Our severe injury rate was 0.55 injuries per 500 employees, a decrease from 0.60 in 2024. This metric, based on the ASTM E2920-14 standard and applied globally, reflects the cumulative impact of our safety culture investments, risk reduction programs, and targeted interventions in high-consequence areas. Finally, our OSHA total recordable injury rate and lost time incident rate for U.S. and Puerto Rico were 1.10 and 0.21, respectively.

We intend to continue strengthening our safety programs, with a focus on deepening our approach to proactive risk identification through leading indicators and maintaining our emphasis on preventing life-altering injuries and fatalities. As we grow our global operations, we expect to extend our safety standards and culture to new facilities and geographies.

Related Topics

• HSE Governance

• Employee Well-Being

• Climate

• Water

• Waste

• Supply