Cerus has presented the favorable outcome of a French study evaluating transfusion of over 13,000 platelet components treated with the Intercept Blood System.
Intercept 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 said that the study was performed by the Etablissement Français du Sang (EFS) of Alsace, France, a provider of blood components.
EFS Alsace, which produces approximately 17,000 platelet components per year, implemented production of Intercept platelets in 2006.
In order to assess the impact of their conversion to pathogen inactivated platelets, the blood center performed a retrospective analysis of hemovigilance data collected both before and after the change.
The study also evaluated the center’s introduction of platelet additive solution, which occurred prior to conversion to Intercept and three periods of data were compared, including in total over 33,000 platelet transfusions to almost 6000 patients.
Cerus chief medical officer Laurence Corash said that the observation confirms previous data indicating that the treated platelets are functioning similarly to untreated platelets and the investigators also noted that use of Intercept treated platelets resulted in a decrease in the incidence of adverse events following transfusion.