ATHX Athersys Inc

On May 30, 2019, Athersys, Inc. (the “Company”) entered into an Open Market Sale Agreement ^SM (the “Sale Agreement”) with Jefferies LLC (“Jefferies”) pursuant to which the Company may offer and sell shares of its common stock, par value $0.001 per share (the “Common Stock”), having aggregate gross sales proceeds of $50.0 million (the “Shares”), from time to time, through an “at the market offering” program under which Jefferies will act as sales agent. The shares of Common Stock that may be sold pursuant to the Sale Agreement will be issued pursuant to the Company’s shelf registration statement on Form S-3 (File No. 333-216626) (the “Registration Statement”), as supplemented by the prospectus supplement dated May 30, 2019 relating to the sale of the Shares (the “Prospectus Supplement”).

Under the Sale Agreement, the Company will set the parameters for the sale of Shares, including the number of Shares to be issued, the time period during which sales are requested to be made, limitations on the number of Shares that may be sold in any one trading day and any minimum price below which sales may not be made. Subject to the terms and conditions of the Sale Agreement, Jefferies may sell the Shares by methods deemed to be an “at the market offering” as defined in Rule 415(a)(4) promulgated under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, including sales made directly on or through the Nasdaq Capital Market or any other existing trading market for the Common Stock. The Company has agreed to pay Jefferies a commission of 3.0% of the gross sales proceeds of any Shares sold through Jefferies under the Sale Agreement, and also has provided Jefferies with customary indemnification and contribution rights. The Sale Agreement may be terminated at any time by either party upon prior written notice to the other party.

The representations and warranties contained in the Sale Agreement were made only for purposes of the transactions contemplated by the Sale Agreement as of specific dates and may have been qualified by certain disclosures between the parties and a contractual standard of materiality different from those generally applicable under securities laws, among other limitations. The representations and warranties were made for purposes of allocating contractual risk between the parties to the Sale Agreement and should not be relied upon as a disclosure of factual information relating to the Company, Jefferies or the transactions described in this Current Report on Form 8-K.

The foregoing description of the material terms of the Sale Agreement is qualified in its entirety by reference to the full agreement, a copy of which is filed as Exhibit 1.1 to this Current Report on Form 8-K and is incorporated herein by reference.

The Shares will be sold pursuant to the Registration Statement, and offerings of the Shares will be made only by means of the Prospectus Supplement. This Current Report on Form 8-K shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of any offer to buy the securities discussed herein, nor shall there be any offer, solicitation or sale of the securities in any state in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state.