Fenwick corporate partner Matthew Rossiter was quoted by the San Francisco Business Times about the impact of the federal Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act on initial public offerings in the biotechnology industry.
Speaking at the Thomson Reuters Allicense conference in San Francisco, Rossiter said the JOBS Act had allowed companies to move quickly on market demand — an important ability in an industry that lost 180 public companies through acquisitions or death from 2008 to 2013.
As of December 2013, there were 300 active public biotech companies, Rossiter noted.
The San Francisco Business Times reported that a “JOBS Act II” was under discussion in the nation’s capital, with details of the legislation not yet finalized. The confidential filing option under the original Act had been a particular boon for biotech, the article added, giving companies an opportunity to test out and improve how they explain the science behind their business to prospective investors.
The full article is available through the San Francisco Business Times website.