Cerus Announces Additional BARDA Funding to Support Development of INTERCEPT Blood System for Red Blood Cells

Cerus (Nasdaq: CERS) today announced an amendment to the Company’s contract with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA). The expansion of the agreement provides an additional $15 million in funding for supplementary support of both the ReCePI acute anemia clinical trial and SCient chronic anemia clinical trial.

As quoted in the press release:

“BARDA is an important partner in our mission to establish INTERCEPT as the standard of care for all transfused blood components globally,” said Dr. Richard Benjamin, Cerus’ chief medical officer. “Our collaboration with BARDA provides Cerus with the support and non-dilutive funding anticipated to complete the clinical development, regulatory submission, and commercial scale-up activities for INTERCEPT red blood cells (RBCs) in the U.S.”

The total potential value of the amended contract with BARDA is $201 million. Funding allocated to date now totals $103 million in support of clinical development activities, including two U.S. Phase 3 studies, and the further development of the INTERCEPT system design in order to enable expanded use and manufacturing scale up of key components.

Click here to read the full press release.