Methods and systems for preparing blood products

1. A method for preparing a pathogen inactivation treatment-ready blood product comprising:

providing a container system comprising at least a pre-connected interim container, a container including a liquid synthetic medium, and a transfer container wherein said medium container and said transfer container are in openable flow communication with said interim container;

providing a source container including a quantity of a blood component derived from an apheresis procedure, said source container being separate from the container system;

establishing fluid communication between said source container and said interim container,

transferring said apheresis-derived blood component to said interim container;

centrifuging said interim container to substantially separate said blood component into said blood component and a supernatant component;

substantially removing said supernatant component from said interim container and transferring the same to said empty transfer container;

determining the amount of the supernatant component remaining with said blood component; and

combining a selected quantity of said blood component with a selected quantity of said synthetic medium within said interim container to provide a blood product with a pre-selected ratio of said supernatant component to said synthetic medium effective for said pathogen inactivation treatment.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said blood component substantially comprises red blood cells.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said blood component substantially comprises platelets and plasma.

4. The method of claim 1 comprising determining the quantity of said synthetic medium required for combination with said blood component to achieve said selected ratio of blood component to synthetic medium prior to said transferring.

5. The method of claim 1 in which said step of establishing fluid communication between said source and interim containers is carried out in an essentially sterile manner.

6. The method of claim 5 in which a sterile connection device is employed.

7. The method of claim 1 further comprising adjusting the amount of said supernatant in said interim container after said determining step.

8. The method of claim 7 further comprising transferring an amount of said supernatant from said transfer container back to said interim container after said determining.