Biotech Leader Provides Testimony Before House Capital Markets Subcommittee
Washington, D.C. (December 2, 2015) – Brian Hahn, Chief Financial Officer of GlycoMimetics, Inc., provided testimony today on behalf of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) before the House Subcommittee on Capital Markets and Government Sponsored Enterprises. Hahn serves as the Co-Chair of BIO’s Finance & Tax Committee.
Hahn testified in support of the Fostering Innovation Act, which would extend the JOBS Act’s five-year Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Section 404(b) exemption for an additional five years for certain small businesses. Hahn also provided support for legislation, the SEC Small Business Advocate Act and the Small Business Capital Formation Enhancement Act, that would enhance the role of emerging companies in the SEC’s policymaking process.
In his testimony, Hahn said the following:
“Because pre-revenue small businesses mainly utilize only investment dollars to fund their work, they place a high value on policies like the JOBS Act that incentivize investment in innovation and prioritize resource efficiency. Any policy that increases the flow of innovation capital to emerging companies could lead to funding for a new life-saving medicine – while any policy that diverts capital to unnecessary and costly regulatory burdens could lead to the same potential treatment being left on the laboratory shelf.
“One key reason that the JOBS Act has been so effective for emerging biotechs like GlycoMimetics is its emphasis on appropriately tailored regulatory burdens. One-size-fits-all compliance requirements have a uniquely damaging impact on biotech companies. These regulatory burdens do not meet their intended purposes because they require the reporting of information that is irrelevant to our business model. For pre-revenue small businesses, the significant time and fiscal burdens divert critical capital from science to compliance.
“Legislation like the Fostering Innovation Act will ensure that growing companies have the opportunity to be successful on the public market without being forced to siphon off innovation capital to spend on costly compliance burdens. The SEC Small Business Advocate Act and the Small Business Capital Formation Enhancement Act would put in place processes to implement similar policies that stimulate public capital formation. BIO and I believe that these important reforms will support the growth of emerging innovators beyond the IPO On-Ramp, incentivizing scientific advancement and sustaining small innovative businesses as they continue their efforts to bring life-saving treatments to patients who desperately need them.”
GlycoMimetics is a clinical-stage biotechnology company based in Rockville, Maryland. GlycoMimetics undertook a successful IPO in January 2014 using key provisions in the JOBS Act. More than 180 biotech companies have gone public under the JOBS Act, a dramatic change from the constricted IPO environment prior to the law’s enactment.
Hahn’s full written testimony can be accessed here.