-- Swiss Red Cross to adopt Cerus' INTERCEPT pathogen inactivation
for platelet components.
-- Implementation is expected to take nine to fifteen months.
CONCORD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Cerus Corporation (NASDAQ:CERS) announced today that it has signed a
three-year purchase agreement with the Swiss Red Cross Blood Service,
with terms that anticipate deployment of the INTERCEPT Blood System for
platelets in eleven of its thirteen blood centers. The Swiss Red Cross
has oversight responsibility for blood centers supporting all Swiss
cantons. The INTERCEPT Blood System for platelets, developed and
marketed by Cerus, protects patients from platelet transfusions
contaminated with bacteria and infectious disease by inactivating
pathogens in donated blood. An estimated 31,000 platelet doses were
prepared and transfused in Switzerland in 2009.
"The Swiss have made the decision to implement pathogen inactivation for
their platelet components in order to proactively address the risks of
bacterial contamination and emerging pathogens," said Claes Glassell,
Cerus' president and chief executive officer. "The Swiss Red Cross has
taken a key step in improving the overall safety of blood transfusion in
Switzerland and becomes the latest country, following Belgium and
Kuwait, to make pathogen inactivation broadly available for their
platelet supply."
In August of 2009, the Swiss regulatory body, Swissmedic, approved the
use of platelet components treated with the INTERCEPT system. This
approval extends the permitted storage time for platelets to seven days
with INTERCEPT treatment, compared to five days without treatment, and
also allows INTERCEPT to be used in place of gamma irradiation for
prevention of transfusion-associated graft versus host disease. Full
deployment of INTERCEPT in Swiss blood centers is expected to take nine
to fifteen months.
"We are following our health authority's recommendation to introduce
pathogen inactivation, which is also consistent with our commitment to
providing patients in Switzerland with the highest quality blood
components available," said Dr. Rudolf Schwabe, Chief Executive Officer
of the Swiss Red Cross Blood Service. "The deployment of INTERCEPT for
platelets will further safeguard the blood supply."
ABOUT CERUS
Cerus Corporation is a biomedical products company focused on
commercializing the INTERCEPT Blood System to enhance blood safety. The
INTERCEPT system is designed to reduce the risk of
transfusion-transmitted diseases by inactivating a broad range of
pathogens such as viruses, bacteria and parasites that may be present in
donated blood. The nucleic acid targeting mechanism of action allows
INTERCEPT treatment to inactivate both established transfusion threats,
such as hepatitis, HIV, West Nile virus and bacteria, as well as
emerging pathogens such as influenza, malaria and dengue. Cerus
currently markets and sells the INTERCEPT Blood System for both
platelets and plasma in Europe, Russia, the Middle East and selected
countries in other regions around the world. The INTERCEPT red blood
cell system is in clinical development. See http://www.cerus.com
for more information.
INTERCEPT and INTERCEPT Blood System are trademarks of Cerus Corporation.
This press release contains forward-looking statements. Any
statements contained in this press release that are not statements of
historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements,
including, without limitation, statements relating to the scope and rate
of Swiss Red Cross' deployment of the INTERCEPT Blood System for
platelets. Words such as "expected" and "anticipate" and similar
expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. These
forward-looking statements are based upon the company's current
expectations. Actual results could differ materially from these
forward-looking statements as a result of certain factors, including,
without limitation, risks associated with early termination of the Swiss
purchase agreement and commercial adoption of INTERCEPT pathogen
inactivation technology, as well as other risks detailed in the Cerus'
filings with, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), including in
Cerus' annual report on Form 10-K for the quarter and year ended
December 31, 2009, filed with the SEC on March 11, 2010. No pathogen
inactivation system has been shown to inactivate all pathogens. You
are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking
statements, which speak only as of the date of this press release. Cerus
does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking
statements as a result of new information, future events, changed
assumptions or otherwise.
Source: Cerus Corporation