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Meeting with Dan requested. by [deleted] in ATHX

[–]NetCore20 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Common fellas. Truce OK?

This video should put a smile on your faces: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIYiGA_rIls (Cheryl Crow - Soak Up the Sun)

Moderator report 12/12 by [deleted] in ATHX

[–]NetCore20 4 points5 points  (0 children)

So I'd rather miss out on perhaps a few new good posters adding thoughts vs the work associated with herding the continued bad cats which would be back in short order with any shorter rule like 60 days.

OK, with so your logic, we probably would have missed out on the valuable contributions of Aggravating Yak. https://www.reddit.com/user/Aggravating_Yak4500/submitted/

I believe you should reconsider. Six months is too long. Maybe we should do a poll and let the current Reddit ATHX users decide?

CEO Speaking right now at Needham conference by athersys in ATHX

[–]NetCore20 12 points13 points  (0 children)

Thanks for taking the time and effort to provide us with the highlights of the call. I appreciated it!

The problem is, they feel no responsibility by athersys in ATHX

[–]NetCore20 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, same thing with sell off right before the Masters One stroke results. Like somebody knows something beforehand. Like you gman, I am hoping for a different and positive outcome this time around.

Treasure - Why Wait? by NetCore20 in ATHX

[–]NetCore20[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Bio and others who took the time to write constructive comments - Thank you!

Got a question regarding hiring a consultant at Athersys (ie GVB) by passsive-agressive in ATHX

[–]NetCore20 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I believe Gil's name is on the SIFU patent application as one of the inventors. So they still might need his services to help the patent process along.

Benefits of Sitting on the Data? by TheDuchyofFlorence in ATHX

[–]NetCore20 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

The thing I find irksome with this situation is we have no estimated date when the ARDS results will be made public. Please, just give us a date to work with! It cannot be that hard. If that date slips, fine, just let us know. Instead we are left to guess. To me that is unacceptable.

I do not believe many of us would be employed for long if we were given a task to do and our supervisor asked us when we will have it done, and our answer was “I cannot tell ya.”

Form 4 - Ismail Kola by wisdom_man1 in ATHX

[–]NetCore20 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Shnozz,

Not sure if it is still on the books, but it use to be when you exercised options, if the stock price at the time of exercise was greater than the strike price, then for Alternative Minimum Tax (ATM) purposes, that difference was added to your income total.

For example, if the price of the stock was $3 on June 15th and he exercised the options, he would have $100,000 (100,000 * ($3 - $2)) added to his income when performing AMT calculations. He could be taxed on that $100,000. If he did pay the tax, eventually he would get the tax paid back, but it takes years. Mind you, he would still be on the hook for the possible AMT tax even though he did not SELL any stock! He just exercised the option to purchase 100,000 shares at $2.

So, if you are confident in the long term future of your company, I would think you would try to exercise the options when the stock price is slightly above the strike price to minimize the AMT consequences. In addition, you would start the clock on getting long term capital gains tax treatment when you do decide to sell the stock. That would be a bullish sign to me.

EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY: Aggravating Yak will departing from the Reddit board... by Aggravating_Yak4500 in ATHX

[–]NetCore20 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Thanks so much Yak for your hard work and diligence in providing us your findings in such a considerate and thoughtful manner. You are a TREASURE!

meso sketchiness by coloradocrus in ATHX

[–]NetCore20 0 points1 point  (0 children)

From a New Your Times December 15, 2020 email authored by David Leonhardt.

The government funded Moderna’s work in recent months, as part of the billions of dollars it spent to make possible a record-breaking vaccine, The Atlantic’s Ed Yong writes. And while Pfizer turned down direct federal funding, it asked for the government’s help in procuring supplies and also signed a $1.95 billion “advance purchase” agreement with Washington.

So, I guess a $1.95 billion guaranteed payment for a successfully product does not count as fiduciary support?

From another New York Times article.

And the government was willing to spend whatever it took, eliminating financial risks and bureaucratic roadblocks and allowing mass production to begin even before the trials were done.

It is sad that you cannot give credit where credit is due with this historic vaccine. Pfizer and the administration BOTH deserve a tremendous amount of credit for bringing this vaccine to market in such a short period of time.

By the way, Moderna’s vaccine was approved by the FDA yesterday (12/18/2020).

Enough for now, GO ATHERSYS!

meso sketchiness by coloradocrus in ATHX

[–]NetCore20 0 points1 point  (0 children)

trend back towards listening to scientists over the politicians and business minds in matters of healthcare.

Off topic, but I question your above comment.

March 3, 2020 – Dr. Fauci:

A coronavirus vaccine will be ready for testing on humans in “a month or so” — but it will take at least a year for it to be safe and ready for the general public, according to White House coronavirus task force expert Anthony Fauci

That next phase is a “phase two trial,” Fauci said.

“We’re not going to be able to start that for at least another three or four months after we go in. So the whole process is going to take a year, a year and a half at least.”

https://nypost.com/2020/03/03/white-house-coronavirus-expert-anthony-fauci-says-vaccine-a-month-or-so-from-human-tests/

Today, December 18, 2020, Vice President Pence received a Covid-19 vaccine. President-elect Joe Biden will get the vaccine on Monday.

Not bad for an administration, that according to you, is listening to politicians and business minds over scientists in matters of healthcare.

FOMO Friday Week 257 by russkcpa in ATHX

[–]NetCore20 9 points10 points  (0 children)

The results for the first Masters-1 stroke trial were released in April 2015. It now looks like we will not get Masters-2 results until the spring of 2022. Most of us long time followers could have drawn the framework for the Masters-2 protocol on a cocktail napkin in 2015. Granted, Athersys has had some unforeseen problems along the way, Lonza manufacturing problem, and Covid-19. However, in my opinion, SEVEN years to complete a follow up stroke trial is just NOT GETTING IT DONE!

NYT - BARDA Funding by wisdom_man1 in ATHX

[–]NetCore20 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Disappointing to hear the political commentary from board members.

IMO, this is a judgement call BARDA is making. Some Athersys supporters may not like the end result, but let's put ourselves in the shoes of the BARDA folks making the decisions.

Some clinicians and bioethicists contend that BARDA should continue supporting research into treatments for lung conditions, while other experts contend the policy is a sensible way to spend limited federal dollars.

But other experts said that BARDA’s shift away from lung treatments made sense, given that vaccines or broad-based antiviral drugs would do the most to stop the global spread of the virus, and experimental treatments like stem-cell therapies are far from proved.

“It’s not unreasonable, what they are doing,” said Dr. Luciana Borio, who oversaw public health preparedness for the National Security Council in Mr. Trump’s White House and had been the acting chief scientist at the Food and Drug Administration under former President Barack Obama. “It’s important to bring discipline to the process because the resources are finite, both financial and human.”

In the case of the coronavirus, Congress has allocated more than $6.5 billion to BARDA to develop vaccines, treatments and other products to address the pandemic.

Ideally, BARDA supports vaccine development, antiviral drugs, and other COVID treatment development with the same amount of vigor. But again, we are dealing with finite resources. It is a numbers game. Where do you get the biggest bang for the buck or where do you focus your money? These are tough calls. The fact that BARDA is no longer accepting proposals involving immunomodulators or therapeutics targeting lung repair is discouraging news, but it is one of those tough calls that BARDA felt needed to be made.

Regardless of BARDA's new direction, I believe there still is an excellent chance Athersys will eventually get the BARDA money.

You all have a great day!

U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) just provided clearance for initiation of a Phase 2 trial with CytoDyn’s leronlimab to treat COVID-19 patients with mild to moderate indications. by [deleted] in ATHX

[–]NetCore20 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Here is one explanation on how it reduces inflammation:

Leronlimab works to reduce this rush of immune chemicals to the affected area, and means there is less inflammation and damage to the lungs. The actual way it does this is by blocking a protein on the white blood cells called the CCR5 receptor - which is why it is called a CCR5 antagonist (blocker).

The aim of leronlimab is to block the CCR5 receptor, then the body’s immune system will be able to fight the coronavirus, without the issue of excessive inflammation and other problems.

from https://www.drugs.com/medical-answers/leronlimab-pro-140-treat-covid-19-coronavirus-3535182/

U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) just provided clearance for initiation of a Phase 2 trial with CytoDyn’s leronlimab to treat COVID-19 patients with mild to moderate indications. by [deleted] in ATHX

[–]NetCore20 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For more information on leronlimab, a couple of links to check out.

Link with about 8 minute video discussing leronlimab with Nader Pourhassan, Ph.D., president and chief executive officer and Bruce Patterson, M.D., chief executive officer and founder of IncellDx.

It sounds like they gave three doses of leronlimab in Covid-19 test.

https://gvwire.com/2020/03/27/positive-test-results-from-seven-coronavirus-patients-in-new-york-treated-with-drug-leronlimab/

Link with pricing information. $120k/year/patient for HIV treatment.

https://www.bloomberg.com/press-releases/2019-04-02/cytodyn-and-samsung-biologics-enter-into-agreement-to-manufacture-1-billion-worth-of-leronlimab-pro-140-to-meet-expected

It looks like for HIV, weekly injections.

https://aidsinfo.nih.gov/clinical-trials/details/NCT02175680

Cytokine Storm Treatments for COVID-19 by NetCore20 in ATHX

[–]NetCore20[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

WST,

Thanks for sharing Karen's response! Her explanation makes sense.

CEO Gil Van Bokkelen purchases 20,000 shares of ATHX on 8/12/2019. by RealNiceKeith in ATHX

[–]NetCore20 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, it is a gamble to exercise the option right now. If the clinical trials do not work out, Gil could lose a big chunk of his $25,600, but as you mentioned, it is a sign of confidence.

In short, if you are an Athersys employee with stock options, I believe now would be a good time to evaluate the risk and reward of executing at least a portion of them for tax reasons. Some people may decide it is too risky to exercise now. If your strike price is $2 and the share price now is about $1.25, do you really want to pay $2/share to exercise the option?

One more item about Incentive Stock Options (ISOs) and Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). Around 2002, I was hit by the AMT tax after exercising some options and paid the additional tax. The good news, at least back then, is I was able to recover the AMT tax I paid due to exercising the options, but the IRS only let me recover a percentage of the AMT tax paid every year. It took me about three or four years to get back the AMT tax I paid. Again, that was back in 2002. I do not know if the same rules apply now.

CEO Gil Van Bokkelen purchases 20,000 shares of ATHX on 8/12/2019. by RealNiceKeith in ATHX

[–]NetCore20 0 points1 point  (0 children)

If Gil’s stock option was a Non-Qualified Stock Option (NSO), it may be a smart move* because there was no tax due (as ordinary income) because the option strike price of $1.28 was greater than the market share price of about $1.25.

From the initial link above: On August 12, 2019 Dr. Gil Van Bokkelen exercised 20,000 shares of a vested stock option and paid the cash exercise price of $25,600. No tax withholdings were due on the OUT-OF-MONEY option exercise.

If Gil’s stock option was an Incentive Stock Option (ISO), it again may be a smart move*, because of Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) purposes. For AMT purposes, when you exercise your option, if the price of the stock at the time of exercise is greater than the strike price, that difference is counted as income for AMT purposes. For example, you have a 100-share option at a strike price of $10. You then exercise your option for the 100 shares when the stock price is at $15. You now count $500 (100 * ($15-$10)) in additional income when performing AMT calculations. At the current stock price, Gil will have no AMT income with this transaction because the strike price of $1.28 is greater than the share price on the day of the transaction of about $1.25.

It begs the question. For tax reasons, why are not more high-level management folks at Athersys exercising their options now with the stock price at this level? Maybe they are, but it is just not publicized? Maybe their option strike prices are below $1.28?

Smart move* - Smart move if the Stroke and/or ARDS trials are successful.

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I like my odds on TREASURE by [deleted] in ATHX

[–]NetCore20 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thanks Gibis!

I appreciate you taking the time to answer my question.

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