BIO commends the House of Representatives for including provisions to ease regulatory burdens

Dec 14 2009

The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) commends the House of Representatives for including provisions intended to ease small business regulatory burdens as part of the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009 (H.R. 4173) which passed today.

Two provisions in the bill would ease regulatory burdens for small public biotechnology companies. A provision authored by Reps. Scott Garrett (R-NJ) and John Adler (D-NJ) would permanently exempt companies with market capitalizations of $75 million or less from Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 (SOX). An amendment offered on the House floor to remove this language was rejected by a broad, bipartisan vote, with 101 Democrats and 170 Republicans voting in support of the Garrett-Adler language.

Additionally, Rep. Michael Capuano (D-MA) authored a provision that would direct the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to perform a study evaluating the costs and benefits of compliance with SOX Section 404(b) for companies that have public floats of less than $700 million and revenues less than $250 million.

“These bipartisan provisions would provide much needed relief for small public biotechs during the current economic conditions. Currently, 41% of active publicly traded biotech companies fall under $75 million in market cap,” stated BIO President and CEO Jim Greenwood. “We urge the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs to include similar provisions in its financial services reform bill.”