"...releasing affirmative disclosure guidelines for biotech companies where scientific meetings and journal articles are concerned. We're making progress (I think) but it is slow progress."
Releasing abstracts from major scientific and medical meetings is an interesting case in point. ASCO has had a press embargo on reporting abstracts or news for talks at their meeting, even though ASCO members get the abstracts in advance (and hand them over to people on Wall Street.) ASH used to have a similar policy, but switched to making the abstracts available online at the same time they released them to their members and meeting attendees.
I like the latter policy better.
I realize that abstracts are typically written months in advance of a meeting, so may be vague, but the selective disclosure worked against small investors. In addition, people will still go to the meetings in great numbers to hear the actual talks and speak to their colleagues, so public release of the abstracts won't hurt their attendance numbers.
