Cerus Corporation reported that the primary efficacy and safety endpoints were successfully achieved in the company’s Phase 3 transfusion study of chronic anemia evaluating INTERCEPT-treated red blood cells (RBCs) in thalassemia patients, SPARC. The results from the SPARC study provide important clinical data regarding the safety profile of INTERCEPT-treated RBCs in a chronically transfused patient population and support Cerus’ INTERCEPT RBC CE mark submission, which is planned for the second half of 2018. The study’s primary efficacy endpoint used a non-inferiority design to assess up to a 15% relative difference in the mean consumption of hemoglobin between INTERCEPT-treated RBC and conventional RBC. The safety endpoints included the incidence of treatment-emergent antibody with confirmed specificity to INTERCEPT-treated RBCs, the incidence of antibodies to red blood cell alloantigens, the incidence of adverse events, and the incidence of transfusion reactions.