Cerus Corporation (Cerus), a biomedical products company, has received approval from Swiss regulatory body, Swissmedic for INTERCEPT Blood System. The system treats platelet components and allows permitted storage time for platelets to seven days with INTERCEPT treatment, compared to five days without treatment.
INTERCEPT-treated blood components have been approved as a biologic for patient use in France and Germany. The company has previously received CE mark approval for its INTERCEPT platelet and plasma systems, which allows Cerus to sell the systems in the European Union.
The INTERCEPT platelet system has been piloted in Basel over the past three years and also has been used in clinical studies elsewhere in Switzerland. The INTERCEPT plasma system is under review by Swissmedic.