Spirovant Sciences, a Philadelphia gene therapy company working on a new way to treat cystic fibrosis, has dosed the first patient in a phase 1/2 clinical trial testing its lead drug candidate.

“The dosing of the first patient is a major milestone for Spirovant and for the cystic fibrosis patient community,” said Roland Kolbeck, Spirovant’s chief scientific officer. “This therapy is mutation agnostic, [meaning it] has the potential to treat a range of cystic fibrosis patients.”

That group, Kolbeck said, includes those patients who are not eligible for treatment with CFTR modulators — a relatively new class of drugs introduced a decade ago for treating the condition — as well as the 10% of patients for whom the CFTR modulators are insufficient.

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