Blood Centers Of America Selects Cerus As Its Supply Partner For Pathogen Reduction Technology

Blood Centers of America members account for over 30 percent of transfusions in the U.S.

CONCORD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Cerus Corporation (NASDAQ: CERS) and Blood Centers of America (BCA) announced today that they have entered into an agreement with Cerus as a BCA preferred supplier.

“We believe that this agreement provides incentives and resources to help make it easier for BCA members to adopt the INTERCEPT Blood System as their new standard in blood transfusion safety.”

The 5 year agreement calls for BCA to actively promote the INTERCEPT Blood System for platelets and plasma to nearly 50 member blood centers, with a commitment for adoption by member centers representing a minimum of 50% of the BCA aggregate volume.

“Our U.S. customer base already includes contracts with several individual BCA members,” commented William “Obi” Greenman, Cerus’ president and chief executive officer. “This significant agreement provides Cerus with the ability to serve BCA’s extensive blood center membership more efficiently, and provides the independent blood centers that make up BCA’s member base with the ability to implement the INTERCEPT Blood System into their operations more quickly and cost effectively.”

“The safety of the U.S. blood supply is dependent upon ensuring that we use technology to combat emerging and potentially unknown pathogens that could put patients at risk for transfusion-transmitted infections,” said Bill Block, BCA’s president and chief executive officer. “We believe that this agreement provides incentives and resources to help make it easier for BCA members to adopt the INTERCEPT Blood System as their new standard in blood transfusion safety.”

ABOUT BCA

BCA is a member-owned organization comprised of independent blood centers throughout North America that account for more than 30 percent of the U.S. blood supply, distributing over 632,000 platelet and 1,000,000 plasma units to 2,000 hospitals annually. Along with their core business of providing a substantial portion of the blood supply, BCA members provide other services including patient blood management, transfusion services, immunohematology testing, therapeutic apheresis, and tissue and cord blood banking. In addition, BCA members provide a variety of human blood products, cells and tissues to the therapeutic, diagnostic, and cell therapy industries. You can find more information regarding Blood Centers of America at http://bca.coop.

ABOUT CERUS

Cerus Corporation is a biomedical products company focused in the field of blood transfusion safety. The INTERCEPT Blood System is designed 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. The nucleic acid targeting mechanism of action of the INTERCEPT treatment is designed 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. Cerus currently markets and sells the INTERCEPT Blood System for both platelets and plasma in the United States, 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 www.cerus.com for more information about Cerus.

INTERCEPT and INTERCEPT Blood System are trademarks of Cerus Corporation.