Cerus Corporation Announces Inducement Grants under NASDAQ Listing Rule 5635(c)(4)

Cerus Corporation (NASDAQ: CERS) announced today that, on January 3, 2017, the compensation committee of the company's board of directors granted fifteen new non-executive employees options to purchase an aggregate of 174,500 shares of the company's common stock with a per share exercise price of $4.33, the closing trading price of the company's common stock on the NASDAQ Global Market on Tuesday, January 3, 2017. Each option has a ten-year term and will vest over a four-year term, with one-eighth of the shares subject to the option vesting after six months and the remaining shares vesting in equal monthly increments.

The stock options were granted pursuant to Rule 5635(c)(4) of the NASDAQ Listing Rules for equity grants to induce the new employees to enter into employment with the company.

ABOUT CERUS

Cerus Corporation is a biomedical products company focused in the field of blood transfusion safety. The INTERCEPT Blood System is designed to reduce the risk of transfusion-transmitted infections by inactivating a broad range of pathogens such as viruses, bacteria and parasites that may be present in donated blood. The nucleic acid targeting mechanism of action of the INTERCEPT treatment is designed to inactivate established transfusion threats, such as Hepatitis B and C, HIV, West Nile Virus and bacteria, as well as emerging pathogens such as chikungunya, malaria and dengue. Cerus currently markets and sells the INTERCEPT Blood System for both platelets and plasma in the United States, Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent States, the Middle East and selected countries in other regions around the world. The INTERCEPT red blood cell system is in clinical development. See www.cerus.com for more information about Cerus.

INTERCEPT and INTERCEPT Blood System are trademarks of Cerus Corporation.

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Cerus CorporationLainie Corten - Vice President, Global Marketing & Investor Relations(925) 288- [e-mail]