







Exhibit 99.1

ATHERSYS ANNOUNCES FINANCIAL RESULTS FOR FOURTH QUARTER AND FULL YEAR 2019





Clinical trial results in Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS) supported Fast Track designation by FDA and designation by the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) as a

"Highly Relevant" program for COVID-19 and other pathogens





Management to host conference call at 4:30 PM EST today

CLEVELAND, Ohio, March 16, 2020 — Athersys, Inc. (NASDAQ: ATHX) announced today its fourth quarter 2019 and annual 2019 financial results and recent highlights.

“Throughout all of 2019, we made important progress in our key clinical programs in stroke and in other areas, as evidenced by the highly promising clinical results from our ARDS program. Those results led to the subsequent Fast Track designation from the FDA,” commented Dr. Gil Van Bokkelen, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Athersys. “The importance of this program has been reinforced by the recent COVID-19 outbreak, where many patients have subsequently become critically ill with ARDS, which a recent World Health Organization analysis has confirmed is the primary cause of death for these patients. This often fatal syndrome can be induced by a range of pathogens, including COVID-19, SARS, MERS and virulent influenza.

“Other than placing patients on a ventilator, there is no effective treatment for ARDS. In January, in the early stages of the COVID-19 outbreak, as part of the U.S. Government's COVID-19 CoronaWatch program, we were approached by BARDA in its leadership role focused on expediting diagnostics, vaccines, antivirals and therapeutic treatments for these patients. After undergoing multiple reviews, we are pleased to announce that MultiStem ® was designated as a “Highly Relevant” therapeutic for COVID-19 by BARDA. We now are working to expedite the further advancement of the program, which has also shown relevance to certain other areas of interest for BARDA,” added Dr. Van Bokkelen.





Fourth Quarter 2019 and Recent Highlights:





• Completed our exploratory clinical study of MultiStem cell therapy for ARDS and announced positive 28-day and one-year results; MultiStem treated patients reported consistent improvement in quality of life over the one-year evaluation period and showed marked improvements in key clinical metrics, including ICU-free days, ventilator-free days and reduced mortality compared to placebo, especially in patients with pneumonia-induced ARDS;

• Advanced through Japanese partner, HEALIOS K.K. (Healios), its ARDS and ischemic stroke programs, with Healios expecting to finish enrollment of both its ONE-BRIDGE ARDS study and the TREASURE stroke study this year;

• Athersys' ARDS program received Fast Track designation from the U.S. Food and Drug Association (FDA);

• Healios ARDS program, using HLCM051 (as MultiStem cell therapy is designated in Japan), received orphan regenerative medicine designation from Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare;

• Appointed Mr. Ivor Macleod as our Chief Financial Officer to help plan and execute our financial strategy as we approach potential product commercialization and beyond;

• Launched new clinical sites for our MASTERS-2 Phase 3 registration study for ischemic stroke from which we are observing good enrollment rates;

• Actively engaged in partnering discussions with companies interested in MultiStem commercialization in Europe and other regions;

• Recognized revenues of $ 0.3 million and net loss of $ 9.9 million, or $ 0.06 net loss per share, for the quarter ended December 31, 2019 ; and

• Ended 2019 with $ 35.0 million in cash and cash equivalents.



