CONCORD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Cerus Corporation (NASDAQ:CERS) today announced today that it has entered into agreements with Ilex Biotech Limited to distribute Cerus’ INTERCEPT Blood System for platelets and plasma in South Africa and Israel. The INTERCEPT Blood System is designed to provide increased protection from a broad range of transfusion-transmitted pathogens, including bacteria and emerging pathogens such as the dengue and chikungunya viruses.
Under the terms of the agreements, Ilex will promote the sales, deployment and support of the INTERCEPT platelet system in South Africa and Israel. Approximately 75,000 platelet units and 175,000 plasma units are collected annually in these markets.
“I am impressed with Ilex’s demonstrated success in bringing state-of-the-art blood safety technologies to South Africa, where the high rate of HIV-positive donations creates an exceptional challenge to transfusion safety,” said William “Obi” Greenman, president and chief executive officer of Cerus Corporation. “We look forward to working with Ilex to bring INTERCEPT pathogen inactivation to both South Africa and Israel.”
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 enables INTERCEPT treatment to inactivate established transfusion threats, such as hepatitis B and C, HIV, West Nile virus and bacteria, and is designed to inactivate emerging pathogens such as influenza, malaria and dengue. Cerus currently markets and sells the INTERCEPT Blood System for both platelets and plasma in 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 more information.
INTERCEPT and the INTERCEPT Blood System are trademarks of Cerus Corporation.