Cambridge biotech tracker · Watertown
Disc Medicine
Listed on Nasdaq as IRON, filed under SEC industry code 2834 (pharmaceutical preparations). Fiscal year ends in December. Numbers below are from the company’s own SEC filings through Q3 '26.
- Cash & investments
- $683M
- Q3 '26 · Sep 30, 2026
- Burn per quarter
- $47.5M
- avg. operating cash flow, 4 qtrs
- Runway
- 3.6 yrs
- 3+ years
- Net loss
- $59.5M
- Q3 '26
- R&D expense
- $44.1M
- 69% of opex
- Raised, last 4 qtrs
- +$257M
- net financing cash flow
- Next readout
- Jul 2027
- Phase 2 · cash past the catalyst
Cash & investments
Quarter-end balance
Operating cash flow
Per quarter; below zero is burn
R&D expense
Per quarter
Two views of the runway
Compare across the clusterThe outside view
3.6 years
Cash at Q3 '26 divided by the average burn of the last four quarters, $15.8M a month.
Management’s own date
Into 2030
Jan–Dec 2030
Guidance counts money received after quarter end, so it is not converted into a burn rate.
“We believe that our cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities, including the net proceeds of our October 2026 underwritten public offering, will be sufficient to fund our current operating and capital expenditure plans and our debt service obligations into 2030, without taking into account any potential net cash inflows from bitopertin or any other marketed product, if approved during such period.”
Cash against the calendar
What the runway has to reach.
Jul 2027estimated
A Phase 2, Open-Label Study of DISC-3405 in Participants With Polycythemia Vera (PV)
Polycythemia Vera (PV)
NCT06985147 on ClinicalTrials.govDoes the cash reach it?
Cash past the catalyst
- Runway
- 3.6 years
- Time to the date
- 8 months
It is about 8 months out. At the current burn there is roughly 35 months of cash left on the far side of it, which is enough room to raise on the result rather than ahead of it.
Catalysts ahead
- May 2027Phase 1/2Study of DISC-0974 (RALLY-MF) in Participants With Myelofibrosis or Myelodysplastic Syndrome and Anemia
- Jun 2027Phase 1A Phase 1b, Open-Label Study of DISC-3405 in Participants With Sickle Cell Disease (SCD)
- Jul 2027Phase 2A Phase 2, Open-Label Study of DISC-3405 in Participants With Polycythemia Vera (PV)
Pipeline
5 active trials, through phase 2/3.
Phase 2 · 2Phase 2/3 · 1Phase 1/2 · 1Phase 1 · 1
Interventional studies where this company is the lead sponsor, from ClinicalTrials.gov. Primary completion is when the last patient is measured on the primary endpoint, which is when the data exists rather than when it is announced. Extension, rollover and healthy-volunteer studies are listed but marked as non-catalysts, because they finish long after the result that mattered. Sponsors revise these dates as enrollment moves, so an estimate is a plan rather than a promise.
The controller’s read
What the filings say.
Generated from the numbers above using the same questions I ask when I open a client’s books: how long the cash lasts, what is driving the gap between loss and burn, and where the accounting judgment sits.
Get this read on your companyThe cash clears the next catalyst
The next dated event is a phase 2 readout in Jul 2027, about 8 months out. That leaves roughly 35 months of cash afterwards, which is the position you want: the raise can be negotiated on the data instead of on the calendar.
About 3.6 years of runway
Cash and investments of $683M at Q3 '26 against an average operating cash burn of $47.5M per quarter over the last four reported quarters runs out around April 2030. More than two years of runway means the finance conversation is about deployment, not survival.
Cash position up $193M since Q4 '24
Net financing inflows of $257M over the last four quarters, from equity, debt, or ATM sales, more than covered operating burn. The balance is the number the board watches; the trend is the number the auditors watch.
Net loss runs $19.3M above cash burn
The Q3 '26 net loss of $59.5M includes non-cash charges, including $14.6M of stock-based compensation, that do not consume cash. Burn, not net loss, is what runway is built on.
R&D is 69% of operating expenses
$44.1M of R&D against $64.2M of total operating expenses in Q3 '26, with G&A at $20.1M. For a clinical-stage company, the accounting questions live inside that R&D line: CRO and CMC accruals, milestone recognition, and what gets capitalized versus expensed under ASC 730.
Material weakness disclosed in the 10-Q filed Jul 30, 2026
Management identified a material weakness in internal control over financial reporting. Common causes at this stage are thin finance teams, manual close processes, and inadequate review of complex areas like revenue or equity. Remediation usually takes two or more quarters to demonstrate.
$59.7M of long-term debt or convertible notes
Debt in a pre-revenue biotech usually comes with liquidity covenants and, for convertibles, embedded features that need ASC 815 and ASC 470 analysis each quarter.
Accumulated deficit of $693M
Total losses since inception. It is also roughly the size of the net operating loss carryforward the tax provision has to track, subject to Section 382 limits after each ownership change.
Quarterly detail, eight quarters
| Quarter | Cash & inv. | Op. cash flow | Net income | R&D | G&A | Revenue | Stock comp | Financing |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q4 '24 · Dec 31, 24 | $490M | −$27.6M | −$29.5M | $24.8M | $9.8M | — | $4.3M | $28.8M |
| Q1 '25 · Mar 31, 25 | $695M | −$41.4M | −$34.1M | $27.8M | $12.2M | — | $6.4M | $244M |
| Q2 '25 · Jun 30, 25 | $650M | −$47.9M | −$55.2M | $46.3M | $15.1M | — | $8.4M | $892K |
| Q3 '25 · Sep 30, 25 | $616M | −$47.8M | −$62.3M | $50.3M | $17.4M | — | $9.5M | $11.6M |
| Q4 '25 · Dec 31, 25 | $791M | −$43.3M | −$60.5M | $46.2M | $20.7M | — | $10.0M | $217M |
| Q1 '26 · Mar 31, 26 | $730M | −$62.2M | −$63.5M | $45.9M | $23.6M | — | $11.9M | $1.7M |
| Q2 '26 · Jun 30, 26 | $718M | −$44.2M | −$59.5M | $46.9M | $18.1M | — | $13.9M | $32.3M |
| Q3 '26 · Sep 30, 26 | $683M | −$40.2M | −$59.5M | $44.1M | $20.1M | — | $14.6M | $6.2M |
Source: SEC EDGAR XBRL company facts, latest filed value for each period. Fourth quarters are derived from annual less nine-month figures; quarterly cash flows are derived from year-to-date amounts. Not investment advice. If a figure disagrees with the filing, the filing is right.