The prior approved label claim allowed Intercept treatment only within eight hours of blood collection. This new extended treatment window applies to plasma from single donor apheresis and pooled whole blood collections, said Cerus.
With this label expansion, blood centers using the Intercept Blood System will reportedly be able to simplify their processing logistics. Whole blood from mobile donor drives, the source of most donated blood, can be collected in the afternoon, held overnight, and then processed into platelet, plasma and red blood cell components the following day.
The expanded time for treatment allows processing of more plasma with Intercept at lower costs due to improved collection, transportation and storage logistics, the company added.
Laurence Corash, senior vice president and chief medical officer of Cerus, said: This label change is especially important to blood centers that depend on mobile blood drives and then have to transport the blood back to centralized processing facilities.
We believe the increase in allowed treatment time for production of Intercept-treated plasma will have very positive implications on donor recruitment, costs, resource requirements, and ultimately the supply of therapeutic plasma and other blood components with the added safety of pathogen inactivation.