BioCentury
ARTICLE | Finance

Guest Commentary: Reducing the burden of disclosure

Guest Commentary: Why it's time to modify SEC disclosure rules for biotech

April 14, 2014 7:00 AM UTC

Much has been written about rocketing biotech stocks and the opening of public markets to biotech companies over the past 18 months. But access to public funding brings with it substantial costs and regulatory burdens imposed by the disclosure requirements of U.S. securities laws. Public companies undertake an onerous burden of providing disclosure, sometimes with so much detail that investors are overwhelmed.

It is therefore timely that the chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, Mary Jo White, is acknowledging this disclosure burden and mandating that SEC staff undertake regulatory changes to reduce it. This presents an opportunity for biotech companies and BIO to make their voices heard and provide recommendations to the SEC on what changes would reduce the disclosure burden while still providing investors with the information necessary to make investment decisions...