SEC Small Business Advisory Committee to Explore Modernizing Market Access

The SEC's Small Business Capital Formation Advisory Committee will convene on July 21, 2026, to examine regulatory reforms aimed at modernizing the IPO process and improving capital formation for small public companies, the agency announced [1]. The public meeting is scheduled for 10 a.m. at the SEC's headquarters at 100 F Street, NE, in Washington, D.C., and will be streamed live on SEC.gov [1]. The committee plans to build on ideas from a prior session, focusing on reducing regulatory friction and encouraging more companies to enter and remain in the public markets [1]. Members will receive an overview of recent rulemakings from staff in the Division of Corporation Finance [1]. Daniel Zinn, General Counsel and Chief of Staff at OTC Markets Group, and Sue Washer, a biotechnology consultant and former CEO of Applied Genetic Technologies Corporation, are slated to share their perspectives on supporting small public company capital formation [1]. The advisory committee provides recommendations to the SEC on rules and policy matters affecting small businesses [1]. The meeting arrives as federal regulatory structures have undergone significant recent shifts. The Department of Government Efficiency, an initiative launched by executive order in January 2025 with a mandate to cut excess regulations and modernize technology, saw its charter expire on July 4, 2026 [2]. The initiative, which placed personnel inside multiple federal agencies, was credited by its backers with saving hundreds of billions of dollars, though independent analyses and the Internal Revenue Service projected net costs and revenue losses in the hundreds of billions [2]. The SEC's focus on capital formation also follows a period of active rulemaking across the government. The previous administration delivered a tax plan aimed at replacing fossil fuel subsidies with green energy incentives and signed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, which contained what was described as the largest federal climate change investment in American history [3]. The broader pharmaceutical and biotechnology sectors, which include companies like the one Washer formerly led, operate within a complex regulatory and financial landscape. Drug development is an expensive endeavor requiring substantial capital, and governments generally regulate what drugs can be marketed and how they are priced [7]. Major industry players such as Pfizer and Novartis rank among the largest biomedical companies by revenue, with Pfizer reporting $4.1 billion in 2025 revenues from its oncology drug Ibrance alone [5][6].