Kedrion Biopharma and Cerus Corporation (NASDAQ:CERS) announced today that they have entered into an agreement for the distribution in Italy of the full complement of INTERCEPT Blood System products. Kedrion Biopharma will initially distribute INTERCEPT for platelets and plasma and later, when the product has been awarded CE marking, also INTERCEPT for red blood cells.
Under the terms of the agreement, Kedrion Biopharma will be the sole distributor for the INTERCEPT Blood Systems in Italy and will be responsible for promotion, sales, deployment, and red cell introduction for INTERCEPT in the future.
“We are pleased to be working with Kedrion,” said Gualtiero Garlasco, general manager of Cerus Europe B.V. “Kedrion has significant experience in the plasma derivatives business and understands the dynamics of the Italian transfusion medicine market. We believe Kedrion is the right partner for us as we seek to increase our market presence in Southern Europe given their industry expertise, commercial reach, and strong relationships with blood centers and hospitals in Italy.”
Cerus estimates the Italian transfusion market at approximately 200,000 units for platelets, 400,000 units for plasma, and 2,500,000 units for red blood cells.
“Cerus’ INTERCEPT Blood System’s platform complements our current product portfolio and we believe the opportunities arising from the demand, in Italy, for transfused blood components pathogen inactivation is significant. We look forward to working with Cerus to help make INTERCEPT the standard of care in Italy for improving the safety of transfusion medicine and are excited to be collaborating on the potential introduction of the INTERCEPT red cell system,” commented Danilo Medica, Italy Country Manager of Kedrion Biopharma.
INTERCEPT and the INTERCEPT Blood System are trademarks of Cerus Corporation.
See http://www.cerus.com for information about Cerus.
