Biomedical products producer Cerus has entered into a three-year agreement with Sweden-based Karolinska University Hospital (KUH) to provide Intercept Blood System for platelets.

RBC

The agreement has an option for automatic annual extensions for an additional two years, in addition to the three-year base term.

The Intercept Blood System has been developed 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.

Cerus Europe and EEMEA president Caspar Hogeboom said: "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."

The Intercept system’s nucleic acid targeting mechanism of action is said 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.

Currently, the company markets the system for both platelets and plasma in the US, Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Middle East and selected countries in other regions of the world.

Located in Stockholm, KUH is claimed to be the largest platelet supplier and one of the largest University Hospitals in Europe, producing around 10,000 platelet units, or 20% of platelet supply annually in Sweden.


Image: KUH to use Cerus’ Intercept Blood System for platelets to inactivate pathogens. Photo: courtesy of rajcreationzs/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net.