An experimental stem cell treatment from Athersys Inc. (ATHX) failed to improve recovery in patients who had experienced a stroke. ATHX dropped 50% with the data release.
The cell therapy, called MultiStem, did not show a difference compared to placebo at 90 days on the Global Stroke Recovery Assessment, the study’s primary endpoint.
Secondary endpoints missed as well, including the proportion of patients achieving a modified Rankin Scale (mRS) value of 0-2; improvement in the NIH Stroke Scale (NIHSS) by ≥ 75%; and achieving Barthel Index (BI) ≥ 95 at day 90.
Announced on Friday morning in a press release, the results came two days earlier than expected by the investing community, as the company had been guiding for data on Sunday at the European Stroke Organization conference.
Athersys pointed to a beneficial effect in patients who received MultiStem treatment earlier in the treatment window (24-36 hours post-stroke), but conveniently dropped nearly half of the patients from this post-hoc analysis due to “confounding data” – essentially, a subset of a subset analysis.
Athersys ended 2014 with $26.1 million in cash and equivalents, or about $0.32 per share.
One or more of PropThink’s contributors are short ATHX.
