The U.S. SEC reached a settlement with Weiguo Zhai resolving insider trading charges related to Astrazeneca plc’s $1.1 billion acquisition of Icosavax Inc. in 2023.
Of all the U.S. SEC’s recent proposed rules to make going, and staying, public more attractive, perhaps the most beneficial for biopharma and med-tech startups is the amendment that would give public companies the flexibility to file semi-annual rather than quarterly reports, Ben Bradford, head of external affairs at Massbio, told BioWorld.
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.
