Biotech Leader Testifies Before House Capital Markets Subcommittee
Testimony celebrates JOBS Act successes and looks to the future
Washington, DC (March 22, 2017) – Brian Hahn, Chief Financial Officer of GlycoMimetics, Inc., provided testimony today on behalf of the Biotechnology Innovation 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’s testimony highlighted the successes of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act across the biotech industry. In the five years since the JOBS Act was enacted, 212 emerging biotechnology companies have used provisions in the law to go public. The IPO surge has been particularly dramatic for early-stage innovators, with 48 pre-clinical or Phase I companies accessing public capital under the law compared to just 3 in the five years before it was enacted.
Hahn testified in support of BIO-endorsed legislation to build on the success of the JOBS Act, including the Fostering Innovation Act and the Corporate Governance Reform and Transparency Act. The Fostering Innovation Act would extend the JOBS Act’s five-year Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) Section 404(b) exemption for an additional five years for certain pre-revenue companies, while the Corporate Governance Reform and Transparency Act would provide for SEC regulation of proxy advisory firms. Both are included in the Financial CHOICE Act and would support the growth of biotech small businesses.
In his testimony, Hahn stated:
“The bipartisan JOBS Act showed that targeted policymaking designed to support job creation and capital formation at small businesses can have a dramatic real world impact. The 212 biotech companies that have gone public over the last five years are living proof that Congress can make a difference for emerging innovators. Many of these companies are conducting promising early-stage research that might have been overlooked by investors before the JOBS Act; others are working in a therapeutic area that has historically been difficult to finance. Under the JOBS Act, they were able to raise the capital necessary to fund their life-saving R&D, bringing the next generation of medical advances closer to patients.
“The extraordinary success of the JOBS Act in the biotech industry means that the work of the Subcommittee has taken on increased import for emerging biotech companies.
“BIO and I believe that important reforms like the Fostering Innovation Act, the Corporate Governance Reform and Transparency Act, the capital formation provisions in the Financial CHOICE Act, and enhanced short selling transparency 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.
Hahn’s full testimony can be accessed at https://www.bio.org/sites/default/files/Brian_Hahn_Cap_Markets_JOBS_Act_Hearing_3-22-17.pdf