BUZZ - Disc Medicine shares decline after the launch of a $350 million stock offering

October 19 - ** Disc Medicine IRON.O's share price fell 1.5% in after-hours trading, closing at $77.77, as the company plans to conduct an equity financing.

** The biopharmaceutical company (link) has launched a $350 million financing plan, including both stock and pre-funded warrants.

** IRON’s share price closed up 38.9% on Monday at $78.93, after its drug bitopertin (link) met all its primary and secondary endpoints in a late-stage clinical trial for erythropoietic protoporphyria (EPP), a blood disorder that causes extreme sensitivity to sunlight.

** The success of this late-stage trial (link) paves the way for the company to resubmit bitopertin for review by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)—after the agency had previously rejected the drug application earlier this year.

** IRON will use the net proceeds from this offering to fund research and development for its existing or new pipeline candidates, support the potential commercialization of bitopertin for EPP and X-linked protoporphyria (XLP), as well as for other general purposes.

** Jefferies, Leerink, Morgan Stanley, and Cantor Fitzgerald are acting as joint bookrunners.

** Based in Watertown, Massachusetts, IRON has about 38.4 million shares outstanding and a market capitalization of around $3 billion.

** According to LSEG data, all 13 analysts covering the stock are rated bullish; the median target price is $117.50.

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