Cerus Corporation, a biomedical products company focused in the field of blood transfusion safety, and its distribution partner CEI Group (Brazil) announced a donation of INTERCEPT Blood System pathogen reduction kits for platelets and plasma to HEMORIO, a public hospital responsible for transfusion medicine and hematology care for the state of Rio de Janeiro and part of the State Health Department and coordinator of the State Blood Network.

HEMORIO is also the designated emergency preparedness blood center in Rio de Janeiro for the Summer Olympic Games, and this donation is aimed at protecting HEMORIO’s platelet and plasma transfusion needs for emergency preparedness during the Olympic Games.

“As the selected blood products provider for Olympics emergency preparedness, providing pathogen-reduced blood components is an important part of our readiness plan. However, due to funding constraints, it has not been feasible to implement the technology commercially in advance of the Olympic Games,” said Dr. Luiz Amorim, General Director of HEMORIO. “We thank Cerus and CEI Group for this donation, which allows us to get up and running with INTERCEPT more quickly. Not only will it provide us with an added layer of safety to protect patients from pathogens such as Zika, dengue, and chikungunya that may be present in donor blood, we also believe that in the long-term, this system will provide a cost savings to HEMORIO.”

“Cerus’ mission is to improve the standard of care for transfused blood components globally and to enable our customers to do everything in their power to deliver safe and effective blood products to patients,” commented Obi Greenman, Cerus’ president and chief executive officer. "This donation helps to bring protection from blood borne pathogens to the people of Brazil, and will also provide an additional safeguard for the Olympians, their families, and fans that will be traveling to Rio in August for the Olympic Games.”

The INTERCEPT Blood System for platelets and plasma is the only pathogen reduction system to receive approval from the Agência Nacional de Vigilância Sanitária (ANVISA) for commercial use in Brazil. In addition to this donation for HEMORIO, INTERCEPT is in the process of being implemented commercially at additional blood centers in Brazil. Over 3.7 million whole blood and apheresis blood components are collected annually in Brazil at a number of public and private collection centers.

“CEI Group is very proud to be part of the introduction of the INTERCEPT Blood System, bringing blood transfusion to the next level of safety in Brazil,” says Paulo Pacheco, President of CEI Group and President of the Brazilian Golf Confederation.

The INTERCEPT Blood System for platelets and plasma, approved in Europe since 2002 and in the United States since 2014, is designed to enhance the safety of donated blood components by inactivating a broad spectrum of enveloped viruses, non-enveloped viruses, Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, spirochetes, and parasites, as well as potentially harmful white blood cells present in donor blood. INTERCEPT is comprised of single-use platelet and plasma processing sets and an ultraviolet (UVA) illumination device for the ex vivo preparation and storage of pathogen-reduced whole blood-derived or apheresis plasma and apheresis platelet components. The safety and efficacy of platelets and plasma treated with the INTERCEPT Blood System has been extensively evaluated in clinical studies and has been monitored and shown to be safe in routine use through hemovigilance programs covering over 500,000 INTERCEPT-processed platelet and plasma components.