Disc Medicine

Disc Medicine

John Quisel co-founded Disc Medicine in 2017 alongside Brian MacDonald, structuring the company around a pipeline built to modulate heme synthesis and iron metabolism. The wealth origin is conventional public markets — Disc trades on Nasdaq, not as a family office or private partnership. Its founding thesis rested on an acquisition from Roche, gaining global rights to bitopertin for erythropoietic protoporphyria. Disc deploys capital exclusively through internal drug development rather than fund commitments. The pipeline spans three clinical programs: bitopertin in a Phase 3 registrational trial for erythropoietic protoporphyria, DISC-0974, an anti-hemojuvelin monoclonal antibody for anemia of myelofibrosis, and DISC-3405, an anti-TMPRSS6 antibody for polycythemia vera. The Roche deal plus a separate collaboration with AbbVie on antibody discovery provides named co-investor and counterparty context. Trials enroll patients across the United States and Europe. The firm operates from Watertown, Massachusetts, with a lean team led by Quisel and scientific founder MacDonald. Adjacent vehicles include a convertible note offering that closed in early 2024. The firm completed an upsized public offering in June 2024, raising approximately $178 million to extend cash runway into 2027. No operating businesses, real-asset arms, or membership networks are disclosed. Disc differs structurally from most biotech startups by concentrating on a single biological axis — heme and iron biology — across three distinct programs, rather than diversifying across therapeutic areas. This creates a focused regulatory and scientific profile uncommon even among public biotech peers. Governance rests with Quisel, a former Acceleron executive, giving the firm a steady operational hand without venture-style fund cycles.