Ascendiant Downgrades Cytori Therapeutics As ATHENA Trials Are Put On Hold

Ascendiant Capital lowered its Buy rating to Hold on Cytori Therapeutics CYTX.

Ascendiant Capital mentioned that the ATHENA trials were put on clinical hold:

“The Company has announced that it has placed enrollment in the ATHENA and ATHENA II trials on clinical hold. This decision was based on a safety review that reported cerebrovascular events had occurred in 3 patients enrolled in the ATHENA study.”

Ascendiant Capital also mentioned that a secondary capital offering will be necessary for Cytori to stay solvent:

“Cytori Therapeutics ended Q1 2014 with $12.8 MM in cash. This compares to $22 MM at the end of 2013. We believe that the company will need to raise additional cash in the future. Now that the ATHENA studies are on hold, we would anticipate that R&D expense will decrease, which should reduce the cash burn from operation, which lately has been around $9 MM per quarter.”

Cytori Therapeutics were last trading at $1.67, down 20.48 percent.