Companies To Watch: Athersys

By Wayne Koberstein, Executive Editor, Life Science Leader
Follow Me On Twitter @WayneKoberstein

Mass-producing off-the-shelf stem cells for multiple conditions in the cardiovascular, neurological, inflammatory, and immune disease areas

SNAPSHOT

Athersys is developing new regenerative medicine (RM) therapies in a wide range of areas — mainly cardiovascular, neurological, inflammatory, and immune disease — and indications, based on its proprietary MultiStem technology. MultiStem is an “off-the-shelf” product made of allogenic stem cells obtained from nonembryonic sources for large-scale expansion into commercial-quantity doses. The MultiStem cells avoid graft-versus-host and other issues with conventional transplanted stem cells, and they also appear to reduce inflammation, protect damaged or injured tissue, and enhance the formation of new blood vessels.