CONCORD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--
Cerus Corporation (NASDAQ:CERS) announced today that the Karolinska
University Hospital (KUH) in Stockholm, has signed a three-year
agreement to purchase the INTERCEPT Blood System for platelets. In
addition to the three-year base term, the agreement allows for automatic
annual extensions for an additional two years. KUH is Sweden’s largest
platelet supplier and one of the largest University Hospitals in Europe,
producing over 10,000 platelet units, or 20% of Sweden’s platelet supply
annually. Including KUH’s utilization of INTERCEPT in routine use,
almost half of Sweden’s platelet supply is expected to be treated with
the INTERCEPT Blood System for pathogen inactivation.
“INTERCEPT pathogen inactivation enables us to replace bacterial
detection, gamma irradiation, and to extend our platelet shelf-life to
seven days while providing safe, effective platelet components.” said
Dr. Beatrice Diedrich, area manager of clinical immunology and
transfusion medicine at KUH. “Furthermore, the use of the INTERCEPT
double-dose treatment process is expected to decrease operational
expenses substantially, allowing for the production of two therarapeutic
doses from a single INTERCEPT Dual Storage platelet kit. Overall, we
anticipate that these efficiency improvements will result in a net
savings in platelet production and increase platelet availability for
our patients.”
“We believe that our extensive hemovigilance data, clinical trial data
and the demonstrated routine use of INTERCEPT with kits sold to produce
almost 3 million pathogen inactivated products significantly contributed
to KUH’s decision to implement INTERCEPT. Our technology’s ability to
provide comprehensive, highly effective protection against bacteria and
emerging infectious agents,as well as white blood cells associated with
graft-versus-host disease, make the INTERCEPT Blood System an ideal
alternative to bacterial detection and irradiation,” stated Caspar
Hogeboom, president of Cerus Europe and EEMEA. “We are very excited to
be supporting Karolinska University Hospital’s mission to provide high
quality platelet components to its patients.”
ABOUT CERUS
Cerus Corporation is a biomedical products company focused in the field
of blood safety. The INTERCEPT Blood System is designed to reduce the
risk of transfusion-transmitted infections 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 of the
INTERCEPT treatment is designed to inactivate established transfusion
threats, such as hepatitis B and C, HIV, West Nile virus and bacteria,
as well as emerging pathogens such as Chikungunya, malaria and dengue.
Cerus currently markets and sells the INTERCEPT Blood System for both
platelets and plasma in the United States, Europe, the Commonwealth of
Independent States, 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 information about Cerus.
INTERCEPT and the 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 regarding the expected market
share of INTERCEPT treated platelets, the impact of implementing the
INTERCEPT Blood System at the Karolinska University Hospital. These
forward-looking statements are based upon Cerus’ current expectations.
Actual results could differ materially from these forward-looking
statements as a result of certain factors, including, without
limitation, risks associated with the implementation and use of the
INTERCEPT Blood System and other risks detailed in Cerus' filings with
the SEC, including exhibit 99.1of Cerus' current report on Form 8-K
filed with the SEC on January 5, 2015. 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