Red Cross signs deal for Cerus treatments

Cerus Corp. rose the most in more than three months after announcing a multiple- year deal to provide the American Red Cross with systems that inactivate viruses in the blood supply.

The agreement, coming amid the Zika virus outbreak, could be worth more than $ 65 million annually if the American Red Cross began treating all the blood it collects with the Concord company’s Intercept system, according to Karen Koski, an analyst at BTIG. Assuming the deal takes three years to be fully implemented, it could add 18 percent, or about $ 100 million, to Cerus’s market value of about $ 600 million, Koski said in a note to investors. She recommends buying the shares,

The stock jumped nearly 6 percent to close at $ 6.02 per share. It had been up as much as 13 percent, the largest intraday advance since Nov. 2.

The Intercept blood system, which inactivates viruses in blood that could otherwise enter the supply without proper testing, was approved by the Food and Drug Administration for platelets and plasma, Cerus said in December. Intercept’s current FDA label lists viruses including HIV, SARS and West Nile, but not Zika.

The Zika virus, linked to a birth defect known as microcephaly, was declared a global publichealth emergency this month.

“When these outbreaks become mainstream media, the American Red Cross can’t sit on their hands. They have to act to ensure the safety of our blood supply,” Koski said in a telephone interview. They are “being proactive against emerging pathogens we don’t test for and added safety measures for those that we do test for.”

The American Red Cross, which processes about 40 percent of the nation’s blood supply, currently asks people returning from countries where the Zika outbreak is ongoing to not give blood for 28 days.