Regulatory Update

Boulder, Colo. – September 15, 2026 -- State sales tax audits drag on for an average of 223 days and can stretch as long as 682 days, according to internal data released by tax compliance firm TaxValet, which has guided 38 clients through such audits.

TaxValet has managed $458,492 in historical tax exposure accumulated by clients before they joined the firm

Defending a single audit consumes more than 20 hours of expert support, TaxValet reported. The firm noted that 45 current clients switched directly from popular sales tax software providers after those tools failed to close compliance gaps.

Berlin – September 15, 2026 -- The European Commission is redrawing public procurement rules to treat supply security as a strategic asset, pressuring Germany to overhaul how statutory health insurers award pharmaceutical rebate contracts.

Brussels Moves to Rank Quality and Resilience Above Lowest Price

The Commission's draft directive would require public tenders to be awarded based on the best price-quality ratio rather than price alone, explicitly allowing supply security and resilience to factor into contract awards. The proposal also permits splitting large contracts into smaller lots to reduce dependency on single suppliers and diversify supply chains. For strategically sensitive procurement categories, the draft opens the door to preferential treatment for European or trade-aligned suppliers.

Berlin – – September 15, 2026 -- The European Commission today unveiled the EU Public Procurement Act (PPA), a comprehensive proposal to modernize European procurement law, drawing an immediate response from Germany's pharmaceutical industry association BPI.

BPI demands supply security as binding procurement criterion

Dr. Kai Joachimsen, Chief Executive of the BPI (Bundesverband der Pharmazeutischen Industrie), said the European Commission must make supply security a mandatory guideline for pharmaceutical procurement. He stated the goal must be supply sovereignty, achieved through strong production capacities in Europe and diversified, resilient supply chains.

Greenwood, S.C. – September 14, 2026 -- ES Foundry has secured ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001:2015 and ISO 45001:2018 certifications for its Greenwood, South Carolina facility, passing an integrated audit with zero major and zero minor nonconformities. The certifications follow the company's recent 2 GW expansion, which pushed the plant's annual solar cell manufacturing capacity to 3 GW.

Auditors confirm quality, environmental and safety systems held during rapid capacity growth

The independent Integrated Management System (IMS) audit evaluated ES Foundry's quality, environmental and occupational health and safety frameworks as a single system across manufacturing operations, covering procurement, material handling, quality assurance and worker safety processes tied to monocrystalline photovoltaic cell production.

Reno, Nev. – September 14, 2026 -- The U.S. Department of Energy awarded approximately US$2.7 billion in contracts in January 2026 to expand domestic low-enriched and high-assay low-enriched uranium (HALEU) capacity, cementing the federal government's role as the sector's largest customer, lender and permitting authority in one move.

San Rafael, Calif. – September 14, 2026 -- BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. (Nasdaq: BMRN) reported that its Phase 3 CANOPY-HCH-3 trial of VOXZOGO (vosoritide) met its primary endpoint in children with hypochondroplasia, with results published in NEJM Evidence and presented at the European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology 2026 Annual Meeting.

Austin, Texas – – September 14, 2026 -- Moment Energy has become the first battery energy storage system (BESS) provider in North America to secure third-party verified non-Prohibited Foreign Entity (non-PFE) status and full Foreign Entity of Concern (FEOC) compliance, the company announced. A Top 10 U.S. law firm conducted the independent review, examining Moment Energy's corporate ownership, effective control and debt financing structure.

Independent legal review confirms compliance status ahead of tightening federal rules

The verification arrives as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act has significantly raised FEOC and PFE requirements for companies seeking federal Investment Tax Credits (ITC). The U.S. Treasury has issued interim guidance through Notice 2026-15 to help taxpayers interpret the new rules, with further clarification expected as implementation proceeds.

Berlin – September 14, 2026 -- Germany's largest doctors' association, the Marburger Bund, has warned lawmakers that a draft reform of emergency medical care could hand health insurers de facto control over which local emergency sites survive, ahead of a public hearing before the Bundestag's Health Committee.

Marburger Bund backs the goal of linking outpatient and inpatient emergency care but flags flaws in the bill

Dr. Susanne Johna, chairwoman of the Marburger Bund, told the committee that better integration of ambulatory and hospital-based emergency structures is needed so patients reach the appropriate care point reliably. She cautioned, however, that the current draft contains provisions that could create new operational problems in practice.