Pappas Capital Announces the Passing of…

Athersys, Inc. (OTCBB:AHYS) announced today that it has been notified by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) that its Investigational New Drug, MultiStem(r), can proceed to a Phase I clinical trial evaluating the safety of MultiStem administration in support of bone marrow transplantation for the treatment of certain cancers of the blood and immune system. This study is the first of several planned clinical trials for MultiStem, which the company believes has broad potential in a number of indications based on its multiple mechanisms of action, its ability to be delivered "off-the-shelf" like a pharmaceutical product, and the safety and effectiveness that have been demonstrated in preclinical studies by the company and its collaborators.