In this episode of Conversations in Healthcare, Mike Ward, Global Head of Thought Leadership talks to Gil Van Bokkelen, founder, chairman and CEO of Athersys Inc. They discuss the company’s clinical program that is focusing on a special class of stem cells which display very unique properties and have been obtained from healthy young consenting donors. Mike and Gil talk about how Athersys was already working on an approach to treat patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome before the pandemic emerged and the challenges they face to tackle their COVID-19 strategy. Also, Gil shares how Athersys was successful in raising nearly $58m in April and what he thinks the company needs to do to become a multibillion-dollar company. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.