Cerus Corporation, a biomedical products company focused on commercializing the Intercept Blood System to enhance blood safety, has entered into independent partnership agreements with both the American Red Cross and Blood Systems Incorporated (BSI) to commercialize Intercept plasma for use in the orphan indication of thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) in the United States.

TTP is a rare, life-threatening blood disorder that typically requires transfusion with large volumes of plasma. There are currently no drugs approved for treatment of TTP, and episodes are associated with significant risk of mortality from widespread blood clotting which restricts blood flow to critical organs such as the brain, kidneys and heart. Over the course of TTP treatment, a patient may receive in excess of 40 liters of plasma, representing exposure to plasma units from more than 200 blood donors. Cerus’ Intercept plasma was granted orphan drug designation for this indication last year, and the company is currently in discussion with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to determine requirements for potential Intercept plasma approval to treat TTP in the US.

The Red Cross and BSI would be the US manufacturers of Intercept plasma for treatment of TTP. Manufacturing Intercept plasma through these two blood centers facilitates controlled distribution of the treated plasma to comply with FDA requirements, while simultaneously allowing broad access to all blood centers and hospitals supporting the TTP population.

“Improving the safety of the blood supply and seeking opportunities to manufacture new, value-added blood products are core to our mission at the Red Cross,” said Richard Feliciano, senior vice president of business development for the Red Cross. “ Intercept plasma for patients with TTP is a logical and beneficial extension of the therapeutic apheresis services that we offer to many hospitals across the country.”

“We believe that pathogen inactivation represents a potentially important advancement in the field of transfusion medicine,” said Pat Holt, executive vice president at BSI. “Securing the optimum safety for patients receiving very large quantities of blood components as part of TTP therapy is consistent with Blood Systems’ goal to ensure the availability of safe and effective blood products for patients who rely on them.”

Under the terms of the agreements, if Intercept plasma is approved by the FDA, Cerus would provide Intercept kits to BSI and the Red Cross and recoup the kit price from the final sale of the Intercept plasma products. Collection and preparation of the Intercept plasma would be performed by BSI and the Red Cross.

“The Red Cross and Blood Systems are two of the world’s preeminent blood centers, together producing approximately 60 per cent of the US blood supply,” said William ‘Obi’ Greenman, Cerus’ president and CEO. “With the support of these two great partners in addition to this new business model for commercializing Intercept treated blood components, we believe that we are well positioned for a successful US launch pending FDA approval of the Intercept plIntercept”

In 2004, Cerus completed a phase III study of 35 TTP patients in which more than 3,500 units of Intercept plasma were transfused. The primary endpoint of the trial, comparing the proportion of patients in the test and control groups achieving remission within 30 days after the first therapeutic plasma exchange, was met (82 per cent of test patients achieving remission vs. 89 per cent of patients in the control group). All secondary efficacy endpoints, comparing time to first remission, relapse rates and plasma exchange volume, were also met. The results of this study were published in the journal Transfusion in 2006 (Mintz et al. Transfusion 2006;46:1693-1704). Intercept plasma is currently approved in Europe for use in all indications of plasma for transfusion, including treatment of TTP.

The Salt River Valley Blood Bank in Phoenix, Arizona, Blood Systems is one of the nation’s oldest and largest blood service providers. The company’s non-profit community blood centres, United Blood Services, Blood Centres of the Pacific and Inland Northwest Blood Centre, provide blood, blood components and special services to patients in more than 500 hospitals in 18 states.

The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters, supplies more than 40 per cent of the nation's blood, teaches skills that save lives, provides international humanitarian aid, and supports military members and their families.