Cerus Corp. (NASDAQ: CERS) led the bulls in Tuesday’s trading session on news of a new partnership with one of the biggest charities in the world. The company announced that the American Red Cross has signed a multiyear purchase agreement for the Intercept Blood System for platelets and plasma, which inactivates a broad spectrum of viruses, gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, spirochetes, parasites and leukocytes and is intended to reduce the risk of transfusion-transmitted infection in platelet and plasma components.
It is worth noting that the American Red Cross is the largest supplier of blood products in the United States. This organization collects and processes roughly 40% of the blood supply, distributing about 780,000 platelet and 1.1 million plasma units in 2015 to nearly 2,600 hospitals and transfusion centers nationwide.
Cerus’s Intercept Blood System for platelets and plasma received FDA approval as recently as in December 2014. This system is designed to enhance the safety of donated blood components by inactivating a variety of pathogens, as well as potentially harmful white blood cells. It also allows blood centers to replace common blood center safety measures, including bacterial detection, cytomegalovirus screening and gamma irradiation.
Dr. Susan Stramer, vice president, Scientific Affairs, Red Cross Biomedical Services, commented:
The Red Cross is dedicated to blood safety vigilance including pathogen reduction. The INTERCEPT Blood System will serve as an intervention to protect patients against infection from emerging and potentially unknown blood-borne viruses, bacteria and parasites.
William “Obi” Greenman, president and CEO of Cerus, added:
This agreement with the Red Cross represents a pivotal step toward making Intercept-treated components available to a majority of patients throughout the U.S. Working closely with the Red Cross as part of the TRUE study in Puerto Rico has provided both organizations with important operational experience that we will be able to leverage as the Intercept Blood System is broadly deployed at Red Cross sites nationally.
Shares of Cerus were trading up nearly 9% to $6.20 midday Tuesday, with a consensus analyst price target of $8.67 and a 52-week trading range of $3.82 to $6.66.
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