#82 - Eating Disorders - Prevalence, and Lack of Solutions with Courage Therapeutics Founder Dan Housman

Stigma Podcast - Mental Health

Today’s guest is Dan Housman. He’s the co-founder and CTO of Courage Therapeutics. We met Dan when he came through our first cohort of the What If Fellowship Program. His startup is a biopharma drug development business focused on eating disorders (anorexia nervosa specifically).

You can connect with Dan here: LinkedIn, Courage Therapeutics Website

Links mentioned in the show: NEDA, Feast, Daniel Le Grange Research

What If Fellowship Program: https://whatif.vc/

HERE ARE SOME THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT

1. Dan tells us about the history of Courage Therapeutics and why his personal experience surrounding eating disorders inspired him to use his background in molecular biology to find a solution to this problem.
2. We discuss the state of the market and current solutions available for eating disorders. Dan shares some of the reasons that he believes these current treatments only do so much.
3. We discuss the drug that he has been working on developing, the effects that it is meant to have on those who struggle with anorexia, and Dan shares his hope that it can help to reduce the need for more severe treatment options.
4. We talk about where Courage Therapeutics is at in the drug development timeline and what the next steps are to make sure that this drug will work and that it will be available as soon as safely possible.
5. We discuss the statistics around eating disorders, specifically anorexia nervosa, and what this problem looks like in the United States, but also globally. Dan also shares that it’s not about how big the numbers are that necessarily make a product successful. There are many contributing factors.
6. Dan shares about the stigma that surrounds eating disorders and why people are feeling unable to talk about them more.
7. Dan shares resources for those who are interested in knowing more about eating disorders, who want to find resources to help themselves or a loved one who may be struggling with anorexia, and for general research papers around the topic itself.

Connect with the Stigma Podcast in the following ways: What If Fellowship, Patreon, Website, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Email

Connect with host Stephen Hays here: Stephen Hays Personal Website, Twitter, LinkedIn, What If Ventures (Mental Health Venture Fund)