Disc Medicine prices upsized $450 million offering to support treatment development

Key Facts

Disc Medicine announced the pricing of an upsized public offering of common stock expected to raise gross proceeds of $450 million to support its therapeutic programs and commercial preparations. The company said in an offering pricing statement in October 2026 that it would sell 6,000,000 new shares at $75.00 per share. The expected proceeds represent the gross amount before underwriting commissions and expenses, assuming no exercise of the option to purchase additional shares. The original announcement targeted raising $350 million before the offering was upsized at pricing. The original proposal also included common stock and pre-funded warrants, while the pricing statement specified the new common shares being sold by the company.

Disc Medicine said it would use the net proceeds from the offering, together with its existing resources, to fund research and clinical development. Uses include supporting what it described in its statement as the "potential commercialization of bitopertin" for erythropoietic protoporphyria and X-linked protoporphyria. The funding also covers commercial preparations for other drug candidates in the company's programs. The company also designated working capital and general corporate purposes among the uses of the funds. Bitopertin remains an investigational drug that is not approved for therapeutic use in any jurisdiction worldwide, according to the company's statement on its clinical results.

The company had announced that the APOLLO trial of bitopertin met all its primary and secondary endpoints in patients with erythropoietic protoporphyria, including X-linked disease. The trial enrolled 183 patients in the United States, Canada, Europe and Australia, according to the results statement. The study used a randomized, double-blind design, comparing the treatment with placebo. Results showed a 41.4% reduction in whole-blood metal-free protoporphyrin compared with placebo. Average monthly time spent in light without pain during the sixth month also increased by 12.2 hours compared with placebo, with a p-value of 0.0010.

Disc Medicine describes bitopertin as an oral selective glycine transporter inhibitor that targets the regulation of heme synthesis. The investigational drug works by limiting glycine entry into developing red blood cells, according to the company's explanation of its mechanism of action. The company said in its description of the drug: "By limiting glycine uptake, bitopertin can regulate downstream heme synthesis." In patients with erythropoietic protoporphyria and X-linked disease, protoporphyrin accumulation causes painful reactions upon exposure to sunlight. Those reactions may be accompanied by swelling, blisters and damage to other tissues, according to the company's description of the two diseases.

The company is undertaking the financing after reporting cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities of $717.7 million at the end of the second quarter. When announcing its quarterly results before the offering, it had estimated that its existing resources would fund its operating plans into 2029. In those results, its net loss was about $59.5 million for the three months ended June 30, 2026. The net loss in the comparable period a year earlier was $55.2 million, according to the financial results statement. The net proceeds from the offering will supplement existing funding for research, clinical development and commercial preparations, according to the uses specified by the company.

Disc Medicine expects the offering to close on October 22, 2026, according to the schedule in the pricing statement. Completion remains subject to customary closing conditions. The company granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to 900,000 additional shares. On bitopertin's regulatory path, the company plans to resubmit the drug application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration by the end of 2026. It expects a decision from the agency by mid-2027, according to the timeline announced alongside the APOLLO trial results.