As of May 21, the U.S. SEC’s “no-deny” settlement policy is dead. For the past 50 years, the agency has required settling defendants to sign an agreement stating that they neither admit nor deny the SEC’s allegations. And beyond that, the standard settlement prohibits, under threat of court action, the defendants from ever denying the allegations publicly. According to an SEC notice to be published in the May 21 Federal Register, the agency has reconsidered the issue and is now rescinding the no-deny rule.
In a move aimed at incentivizing companies to go and stay public, the U.S. SEC proposed two rulemakings May 19 as a foundation to the agency’s Make IPOs Great Again agenda.
The U.S. SEC filed a settlement April 29 that it reached with Anthony Cataldo regarding allegations that the former chairman and CEO of a clinical-stage biopharma company misappropriated about $3.2 million from the company and then concealed the misconduct from the company’s auditors.
Another biopharma acquisition is at the heart of one of the U.S. SEC’s latest insider trading settlements. This time, the trading centered on Jazz Pharmaceuticals plc’s $935 million purchase of Chimerix Inc. last year.
Stryker Corp. revealed that the cyberattack which occurred last month had a material impact on its operations and will impact its financial results for the first quarter of 2026. However, the company said in an SEC filing that it is now fully operational and does not expect the incident to have a material impact on its 2026 full-year guidance.
Stryker Corp. is scrambling to recover from a cyberattack that’s disrupting its global network and being claimed by pro-Iranian hackers. “At this time, there is no indication of malware or ransomware, and we believe the situation is contained to our internal Microsoft environment only,” the Kalamazoo, Mich.-based med-tech company said March 12.
The SEC filed civil charges against CBA Pharma Inc. and two top executives in U.S. district court, alleging they conducted a fraudulent securities offering that raised about $4.1 million from nearly 160 investors.
Veradermics Inc. raised $256.3 million from an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange Feb. 4. The proceeds will fund three ongoing phase II/III clinical trials of VDPHL-01, its novel oral formulation of Rogaine (minoxidil) to treat pattern hair loss in men and women.
Oncology-focused Eikon Therapeutics Inc. set the terms of its IPO Jan. 28, selling 17.648 million shares at a price range between $16 to $18 per share. At the top of the range, the Millbrae, Calif.-based biopharma company would raise about $317.7 million.
Nader Pourhassan, the former president and CEO of Cytodyn Inc., was sentenced Jan. 23 to 30 months in prison for his role in a securities fraud scheme to deceive investors about the Vancouver, Wash.-based company’s development of leronlimab as a treatment for HIV and COVID-19.