Foreign investment in U.S. biotech will become harder, and stay harder
Guest Commentary: The changes introduced by CFIUS aren’t going away. Biotechs should take note.
It would be easy to brush aside the government’s increased scrutiny of foreign investments in U.S. companies in the interest of national security as either a temporary symptom of the trade war or a policy debate far removed from life sciences. That would be a mistake. These changes are here to stay, and they may have a profound effect on the U.S. biotechnology industry.
Over the coming months, the U.S. Department of the Treasury will adopt regulations implementing the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act of 2018 (FIRRMA), which substantially expanded the jurisdiction of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) to review and mitigate national security risks of foreign investment in U.S. businesses. Treasury issued draft regulations on Sept. 17, and they are open for comment until Oct. 17...