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Capital Formation Spurs Job Growth

Today, BIO submitted written testimony to the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs on the importance of implementing policies that will spur job growth through capital formation while protecting investors.

Congress has the opportunity to help speed lifesaving cures and treatments to patients by removing burdens to innovation in our industry.

It takes eight to 12 years for a breakthrough company to bring a new medicine from discovery through Phase I, Phase II, and Phase III clinical trials, on to FDA approval of a product. The entire endeavor costs between $800 million and $1.2 billion. Increasingly, venture capital firms are turning elsewhere to make their investments.

The biotech industry has the ability to deliver the next generation of cures and treatments to the bedsides of patients who desperately need them while at the same time creating a healthier American economy. The 1.42 million Americans directly employed by biotech are driven to treat and heal the world, but in order for them to be able to do so, Congress must remove the barriers to innovation that we face.

Several proposals could help alleviate some of the financial struggles that our companies face:

  • BIO supports S. 1544 and H.R. 1070, the Small Company Capital Formation Act. This would increase the eligibility threshold of SEC Regulation A from $5 million to $50 million while maintaining the same disclosure requirements.
  • BIO supports S. 1824 and H.R. 2167, the Private Company Flexibility and Growth Act, which would raise the reporting trigger under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 by increasing the shareholder limit and exempting employees from the count.
  • BIO supports S. 1831 and H.R. 2940, the Access to Capital for Job Creators Act, which would require the SEC to revise Regulation D to permit general solicitation of accredited investors in private offerings under Rule 506.
  • BIO supports legislation to relieve small companies from the unnecessary burden and expense of conducting an audit under Section 404(b) of Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX). H.R. 3213, the Small Company Job Growth and Regulatory Relief Act, would provide companies with a public float of $350 million or less an exemption from Section 404(b). BIO supports the addition of a revenue test with regard to the exemption from Section 404(b).