After securing approval at the end of last year for a potential alternative to bladder removal in certain bladder cancer patients, Ferring Pharmaceuticals has given the gene therapy Adstiladrin to its first commercial patient.  

The patient, a 78-year-old man in the Midwest, is the first of many to receive treatment through Ferring’s early experience program. The program is meant to ensure patients can access the drug during a major manufacturing scale-up.

Because the adenovirus vector-based therapy is complicated to make, the company knew it had to be “very, very responsible” to ensure it was getting the med to patients while ramping up manufacturing, Ferring’s chief scientific officer Elizabeth Garner, M.D., MPH, said in an interview.