Recently, Athersys has positioned MultiStem as a potential treatment for COVID-19-induced ARDS and highlighted the “highly relevant” BARDA designation that MultiStem received for COVID-19 and other pathogens. This has sent Athersys’ share price soaring up over 200% since the announcement, as of April 1, 2020.
We dug deeper into both and found significant issues. Our research leads us to believe that MultiStem failed its phase 2 trial in ARDS, and that the BARDA designation is not meaningful. In combination with our previous research into MultiStem’s history of failure in ischemic stroke, we believe MultiStem is