Imminent climate disclosure rules could bring new expenses for small biotechs

With the SEC expected to publish final climate disclosure rules for public companies this year, pre-revenue biotechs need to look out for whether they’ll get shielded from the new requirements. If not, many will need to start building compliance capacity from scratch.

The next shoe to drop on corporate environment, social and governance (ESG) responsibilities will likely be in the form of SEC rulemaking that would require all public companies to include climate-related disclosures in their registration statements and periodic reports. Public comment closed Nov. 1 on proposed rules published in March 2022, and final rules are targeted for April...