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Biotech Bulls & Breakthroughs

Tackling Rare Genetic Diseases with Diagonal Therapeutics

19 min episode · 2 min read
·
Diagonal Therapeutics

Episode

19 min

Read time

2 min

Topics

Health & Wellness, Investing, Fundraising & VC

AI-Generated Summary

Key Takeaways

  • Root-cause targeting: Diagonal's bispecific antibodies act as molecular glue, forcing four cell-surface receptors into a specific confirmation to restore normal intracellular signaling — directly fixing the loss-of-function mutation rather than addressing downstream effects competitors target with anti-angiogenic approaches.
  • Market-building strategy: Before seeking investors, Diagonal invested heavily in Komodo Health claims data post-Series A to quantify commercial opportunity for HHT — a disease with 250,000 patients across the US and EU and zero approved therapies — then published findings in the American Journal of Hematology.
  • Pipeline scope at lean scale: With 24 full-time employees, Diagonal runs five programs: one lead asset (HHT and pulmonary arterial hypertension) entering the clinic in 2026, plus three preclinical programs in lead optimization, demonstrating that a small team wearing multiple hats can sustain a multi-indication platform.
  • Investor validation signal: Diagonal closed a Series B with 17 biotech-specific investors, and additional investors beyond that syndicate expressed interest in HHT — a signal that publishing disease-awareness data with leading KOLs and patient advocacy groups materially accelerates fundraising for uncharted rare disease indications.

What It Covers

Diagonal Therapeutics SVP Eric Duhaime explains how the 24-person private biotech uses clustering bispecific antibodies to target root-cause receptor mutations in rare genetic diseases, with lead program DIAC723 entering clinical trials in 2026 for HHT.

Key Questions Answered

  • Root-cause targeting: Diagonal's bispecific antibodies act as molecular glue, forcing four cell-surface receptors into a specific confirmation to restore normal intracellular signaling — directly fixing the loss-of-function mutation rather than addressing downstream effects competitors target with anti-angiogenic approaches.
  • Market-building strategy: Before seeking investors, Diagonal invested heavily in Komodo Health claims data post-Series A to quantify commercial opportunity for HHT — a disease with 250,000 patients across the US and EU and zero approved therapies — then published findings in the American Journal of Hematology.
  • Pipeline scope at lean scale: With 24 full-time employees, Diagonal runs five programs: one lead asset (HHT and pulmonary arterial hypertension) entering the clinic in 2026, plus three preclinical programs in lead optimization, demonstrating that a small team wearing multiple hats can sustain a multi-indication platform.
  • Investor validation signal: Diagonal closed a Series B with 17 biotech-specific investors, and additional investors beyond that syndicate expressed interest in HHT — a signal that publishing disease-awareness data with leading KOLs and patient advocacy groups materially accelerates fundraising for uncharted rare disease indications.

Notable Moment

Diagonal's first post-Series A expenditure was not on lab infrastructure but on commercial claims data — an unconventional prioritization that ultimately anchored their scientific credibility with both pharma partners and institutional investors.

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Episode Transcript

Today's episode is brought to you by scientist.com, the life science industry's leading R and D orchestration platform. Scientist.com gives researchers instant access to thousands of pre vetted suppliers, saving time, reducing costs, and accelerating innovation. Hi. I'm John Galliano, senior director of BioPharm Catalyst. Hello. I'm Chef, known as Chef Station, a twenty year vet in trading biotech stocks. And this is biotech bulls and breakthroughs. Biopharm Catalyst is not a registered investment advisory firm, and the views on this podcast are not intended to be financial advice. Guests on this podcast may hold the stocks discussed in personal or other investment accounts. This content is for informational purposes only and should not be considered investment advice. Always do your own research before making any investment decisions. If you find the information on this podcast useful and would like more catalyst information, BioPharm Catalyst is your premier resource for catalyst data for over 1,000 publicly traded biotech companies. We track clinical trial based catalysts, everything from IND filings to drug data releases for phase one, two, and three trials to regulatory decisions. Our Catalyst Calendars are updated as soon as the press release comes out, so you can be sure you have the most timely and accurate information to inform your biotech trading. All of our plans come with a seven day free trial and we frequently run discounts on our platform, So check out www.biopharmcatalyst.com to get started today. Good morning, good evening, or I should say good morning, good afternoon, good evening, depending on where you're joining us from. Welcome to another episode of biotech bulls and breakthroughs. For today's episode, we have a very unique guest on the line. We have Eric Duhaime from Diagonal Therapeutics. Actually, a privately held biotech company, specializing in, genetic diseases. And, Eric is the senior vice president of finance and corporate development. So, Eric, thank you so much for joining us. Welcome aboard, and I'll let you introduce yourself as well. Sure. Thanks. I appreciated you you having me on. Again, Eric Duham, senior vice president of finance and corporate development at Diagonal Therapeutics. I effectively oversee all of, general and administrative functions at Diagonal. I've been with the company for about three years. Prior to, joining Diagonal, I was the vice president of corporate development and finance at Goldfinch Bio, another privately held company. Most of my experience over, about twenty years of the biopharma industry has been in finance, corporate development, strategic marketing across a number of different small biotech companies, But most of the experience has been focused on rare genetic diseases and helping companies build markets for diseases where there's no, or, you know, really, poorly, tolerated treatments for patients with really severe diseases. Very cool. It's certainly a space that we are, familiar with ourselves. As you may or may not know, you know, Biopharm Catalyst, we have a ton of investors on our platform, who are screening various biotech companies, and, rare diseases is …

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  • by Komodo Health

    Diagonal invested heavily in Komodo Health claims data post-Series A to quantify commercial opportunity for HHT
  • by Scientist.com

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  • Diagonal Therapeutics SVP Eric Duhaime explains how the 24-person private biotech uses clustering bispecific antibodies to target root-cause receptor mutations in rare genetic diseases, with lead program DIAC723 entering clinical trials in 2026 for HHT.

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