Disc Medicine Inc

UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

(Mark One)

☒ ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the fiscal year ended December 31,2023

OR

☐ TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the transition period from to

Commission file number:001-39438

Disc Medicine, Inc.

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

Registrant’s telephone number, including area code: (617)674-9274

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act:

None

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☒ No☐

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes☐ No ☒

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☒ No☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit such files). Yes ☒ No☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer, a smaller reporting company, or an emerging growth company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer,” “smaller reporting company,” and “emerging growth company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act.☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report.☐

If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements.☐

Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b).☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes☐ No☒

The aggregate market value of Common Stock held by non-affiliates of the registrant computed by reference to the price of the registrant’s Common Stock as of June 30, 2023, the last business day of the registrant’s most recently completed second fiscal quarter, was approximately $507.8 million (based on the last reported sale price on the Nasdaq Global Market as of such date). For this computation, the registrant has excluded the market value of all shares of Common Stock reported as beneficially owned by its executive officer and directors; such exclusion shall not be deemed to constitute an admission that any such person is an affiliate of the registrant.

As of February 29, 2024, there were 24,681,028 shares of the registrant’s Common Stock, $0.0001 par value per share, outstanding.

Disc Medicine, Inc.

Index

i

FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

This Annual Report on Form 10-K of Disc Medicine, Inc., or the Company, contains or incorporates statements that constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Our forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding our or our management team’s expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future. In addition, any statements that refer to projections, forecasts or other characterizations of future events or circumstances, including any underlying assumptions, are forward-looking statements. The words “anticipate,” “believe,” “contemplate,” “continue,” “could,” “estimate,” “expect,” “intends,” “may,” “might,” “plan,” “possible,” “potential,” “predict,” “project,” “should,” “will,” “would” and similar expressions may identify forward-looking statements, but the absence of these words does not mean that a statement is not forward-looking. Forward-looking statements in this Annual Report on Form 10-K may include, for example, statements about:

•

the initiation, timing, progress, results, and cost of our research and development programs and our current and future preclinical studies and clinical trials, including statements regarding the timing of initiation and completion of studies or trials and related preparatory work, the period during which the results of the trials will become available, and our research and development programs;

•

our ability to efficiently discover and develop product candidates;

•

our ability and the potential to successfully manufacture our drug substances and product candidates for preclinical use, for clinical trials and on a larger scale for commercial use, if approved;

•

our ability to obtain funding for our operations necessary to complete further development and commercialization of our product candidates;

•

our ability to obtain and maintain regulatory approval of our product candidates;

•

our ability to commercialize our products, if approved;

•

the pricing and reimbursement of our product candidates, if approved;

•

the implementation of our business model, and strategic plans for our business and product candidates;

•

the scope of protection we are able to establish and maintain for intellectual property rights covering our product candidates;

•

estimates of our future expenses, revenues, capital requirements, and our needs for additional financing;

•

the potential benefits of strategic collaboration agreements, our ability to enter into strategic collaborations or arrangements, and our ability to attract collaborators with development, regulatory and commercialization expertise;

•

future agreements with third parties in connection with the commercialization of product candidates and any other approved product;

•

the size and growth potential of the markets for our product candidates, and our ability to serve those markets;

•

our financial performance;

•

the rate and degree of market acceptance of our product candidates;

•

regulatory developments in the United States and foreign countries;

•

our ability to contract with third-party suppliers and manufacturers and their ability to perform adequately;

•

our ability to produce our products or product candidates with advantages in turnaround times or manufacturing cost;

•

the success of competing therapies that are or may become available;

•

our ability to attract and retain key scientific or management personnel;

•

the impact of laws and regulations;

•

developments relating to our competitors and our industry;

•

the impact of global economic and political developments on our business, including rising inflation and capital market disruptions, the current conflict in Ukraine, economic sanctions and economic slowdowns or recessions that may result from such developments which could harm our research and development efforts as well as the value of our common stock and our ability to access capital markets; and

ii

•

other risks and uncertainties, including those listed under the caption “Risk Factors.”

These forward-looking statements are based on information available to us at the time of this Annual Report on Form 10-K and current expectations, forecasts and assumptions, and involve a number of judgments, risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing our views as of any subsequent date, and we do not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date they were made, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws.

The outcome of the events described in these forward-looking statements is subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors. As a result of a number of known and unknown risks and uncertainties, our actual results or performance may be materially different from those expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Some factors that could cause actual results to differ include:

•

the ability to maintain the listing of our common stock on Nasdaq;

•

the price of our securities may be volatile due to a variety of factors, including the volatility in capital markets, changes in the competitive and highly regulated industries in which we operate, variations in performance across competitors, changes in laws and regulations affecting our business and changes in our capital structure;

•

the risk of downturns in the economy and the possibility of rapid change in the highly competitive industry in which we operate;

•

the risk that we will need to raise additional capital to execute our business plan, which may not be available on acceptable terms or at all; and

•

the risk that we experience difficulties in managing our growth and expanding operations.

iii

The risk factors detailed in Item 1A entitled “Risk Factors” in this Annual Report on Form 10-K are the risks that we believe are material to our investors and a reader should carefully consider them. Those risks are not all of the risks we face and other factors not presently known to us or that we currently believe are immaterial may also affect our business if they occur. The following is a summary of the risk factors detailed in Item 1A:

•

Our limited operating history may make it difficult for you to evaluate the success of our business to date and to assess our future viability.

•

We have incurred significant net losses since our inception and anticipate that we will continue to incur losses for the foreseeable future.

•

We have no products approved for commercial sale and have not generated any revenue from product sales.

•

We will need to raise substantial additional funding. If we are unable to raise capital when needed or on terms acceptable to us, we may be forced to delay, reduce, or eliminate some of our product development programs or commercialization efforts.

•

We have only successfully completed one Phase 1 clinical trial, and may be unable to successfully complete any additional clinical trials for any product candidates we develop. Certain of our programs are still in preclinical development and may never advance to clinical development.

•

Our programs are focused on the development of therapeutics for patients with hematologic diseases, which is a rapidly evolving area of science, and the approach we are taking to discover and develop product candidates is novel and may never lead to approved or marketable products.

•

Interim, top-line, initial and preliminary data from our clinical trials that we announce or publish from time to time may change as more patient data become available and are subject to confirmation, audit, and verification procedures that could result in material changes in the final data.

•

If we experience delays or difficulties in the enrollment of patients in clinical trials, our receipt of necessary regulatory approvals could be delayed or prevented.

•

Results from early preclinical studies and clinical trials of our programs and product candidates are not necessarily predictive of the results of later preclinical studies and clinical trials of our programs and product candidates. If we cannot replicate the results from earlier preclinical studies and clinical trials of our programs and product candidates in our later preclinical studies and clinical trials, we may be unable to successfully develop, obtain regulatory approval for and commercialize our product candidates.

•

Our clinical trials or those of our future collaborators may reveal significant adverse events not seen in prior preclinical studies or clinical trials and may result in a safety profile that could inhibit regulatory approval or market acceptance of any of our product candidates.

•

Some of our product candidates modulate pathways for which there are currently no approved or effective therapies, which may result in greater research and development expenses, regulatory issues that could delay or prevent approval, or discovery of unknown or unanticipated adverse effects on safety or efficacy.

•

We are currently conducting a Phase 2 clinical trial for bitopertin in Australia and may in the future conduct additional clinical trials of our product candidates outside the United States, and the FDA and comparable foreign regulatory authorities may not accept data from such trials.

•

If we are not able to obtain, or if there are delays in obtaining, required regulatory approvals for our product candidates, we will not be able to commercialize, or will be delayed in commercializing, our product candidates, and our ability to generate revenue will be materially impaired.

•

We face substantial competition, which may result in others discovering, developing, or commercializing products before or more successfully than we do.

•

If our current product candidates or any future product candidates do not achieve broad market acceptance, the revenue that we generate from our sales may be limited, and we may never become profitable.

iv

•

We rely on third parties to conduct our Phase 2 clinical trials of bitopertin, Phase 1b/2 clinical trials of DISC-0974 and Phase 1 clinical trial of DISC-3405 (formerly MWTX-003) and expect to rely on third parties to conduct other clinical trials for our product candidates, as well as potential investigator-sponsored clinical trials of our product candidates. If these third parties do not successfully carry out their contractual duties, comply with regulatory requirements, meet expected deadlines, or if the prior work conducted by these third parties is incomplete, we may not be able to obtain regulatory approval for or commercialize our product candidates and our business could be substantially harmed.

•

We might not realize the anticipated benefits of our current collaborations with Mabwell or NIH, or any other collaborations we enter into in the future.

•

We contract with third parties for the manufacture of our product candidates for preclinical development and clinical testing, and expect to continue to do so for commercialization. This reliance on third parties increases the risk that we will not have sufficient quantities of our product candidates or products or such quantities at an acceptable cost, which could delay, prevent, or impair our development or commercialization efforts.

•

If we are unable to obtain and maintain patent and other intellectual property protection for our technology and product candidates, or if the scope of the intellectual property protection obtained is not sufficiently broad, our competitors could develop and commercialize technology and drugs similar or identical to ours, and our ability to successfully commercialize our technology and drugs may be impaired, and we may not be able to compete effectively in our market.

•

We may not obtain or grant licenses or sublicenses to intellectual property rights in all markets on equally or sufficiently favorable terms with third parties.

•

Intellectual property rights do not guarantee commercial success of current or future product candidates or other business activities. Numerous factors may limit any potential competitive advantage provided by our intellectual property rights.

•

Obtaining and maintaining regulatory approval of our product candidates in one jurisdiction does not mean that we will be successful in obtaining regulatory approval of our product candidates in other jurisdictions.

•

Our future success depends on our ability to retain key executives and experienced scientists and to attract, retain, and motivate qualified personnel.

•

Adverse developments affecting the financial services industry, such as actual events or concerns involving liquidity, defaults, or non-performance by financial institutions or transactional counterparties, could adversely affect the Company’s current and projected business operations and its financial condition and results of operations.

•

Unfavorable global economic conditions could adversely affect our business, financial condition or results of operations.

•

The market price of our common stock is expected to be volatile.

•

We will incur additional costs and increased demands upon management as a result of complying with the laws and regulations affecting public companies.

•

Once we are no longer an emerging growth company, a smaller reporting company or otherwise no longer qualify for applicable exemptions, we will be subject to additional laws and regulations affecting public companies that will increase our costs and the demands on management and could harm our operating results.

•

Provisions in our charter documents and under Delaware law could make an acquisition of us more difficult and may discourage any takeover attempts our stockholders may consider favorable, and may lead to entrenchment of management.

This section contains forward-looking statements. You should refer to the explanation of the qualifications and limitations on forward-looking statements beginning on page ii.

v