Sling Therapeutics Scores $123M for Oral Thyroid Eye Disease Pill
Biotech startup Sling Therapeutics has raised $123 million in Series C funding to advance its experimental oral drug for thyroid eye disease. The company aims to challenge existing treatments like Amgen's Tepezza and Viridian Therapeutics' Lumvoa, which are administered via injection or infusion.
Sling's linsitinib blocks the protein IGF-1R, which drives inflammation in TED. CEO Ryan Zeidan claims that linsitinib impacts this protein more precisely than its antibody-drug counterparts, potentially yielding a 'different clinical profile'.
The company believes linsitinib's design will help it avoid side effects associated with approved TED medicines, such as hearing loss and hyperglycemia. Testing has suggested the drug could be more durable than biologics, with no reported cases of hearing loss or tinnitus in an earlier late-stage trial.