We will be contrasting the differences between Athersys Inc. (NASDAQ:ATHX) and Aerpio Pharmaceuticals Inc. (NASDAQ:ARPO) as far as institutional ownership, profitability, analyst recommendations, risk, dividends, earnings and valuation are concerned. The two businesses are rivals in the Biotechnology industry.

Valuation & Earnings

	Gross Revenue	Price/Sales Ratio	Net Income	Earnings Per Share	Price/Earnings Ratio
Athersys Inc.	24.29M	8.71	24.28M	-0.21	0.00
Aerpio Pharmaceuticals Inc.	20.16M	2.09	10.40M	-0.44	0.00

Table 1 shows the top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation for Athersys Inc. and Aerpio Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Profitability

Table 2 hightlights the return on assets, net margins and return on equity of the two companies.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Athersys Inc.	-99.96%	-58.7%	-44.6%
Aerpio Pharmaceuticals Inc.	-51.59%	-22.7%	-18.5%

Liquidity

The current Quick Ratio of Athersys Inc. is 4.6 while its Current Ratio is 4.6. Meanwhile, Aerpio Pharmaceuticals Inc. has a Current Ratio of 19.2 while its Quick Ratio is 19.2. Aerpio Pharmaceuticals Inc. is better positioned to pay off its short-term and long-term debts than Athersys Inc.

Analyst Ratings

The Ratings and Recommendations for Athersys Inc. and Aerpio Pharmaceuticals Inc. are featured in the next table.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Athersys Inc.	0	0	2	3.00
Aerpio Pharmaceuticals Inc.	0	0	0	0.00

$7 is Athersys Inc.’s average target price while its potential upside is 386.11%.

Insider & Institutional Ownership

The shares of both Athersys Inc. and Aerpio Pharmaceuticals Inc. are owned by institutional investors at 23.7% and 26.6% respectively. Insiders owned roughly 2.1% of Athersys Inc.’s shares. Competitively, 0.8% are Aerpio Pharmaceuticals Inc.’s share owned by insiders.

Performance

Here are the Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Half Yearly, Yearly and YTD Performance of both pretenders.

	Performance (W)	Performance (M)	Performance (Q)	Performance (HY)	Performance (Y)	Performance (YTD)
Athersys Inc.	1.97%	-2.52%	-19.69%	-22.89%	15.67%	7.64%
Aerpio Pharmaceuticals Inc.	-2.05%	-17.82%	48.96%	-17.82%	-41.63%	68.24%

For the past year Athersys Inc. was less bullish than Aerpio Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Summary

Aerpio Pharmaceuticals Inc. beats Athersys Inc. on 7 of the 11 factors.

Athersys, Inc., a biotechnology company, focuses on the research and development activities in the field of regenerative medicine. Its clinical development programs are focused on treating neurological conditions, cardiovascular diseases, inflammatory and immune disorders, and pulmonary and other conditions. The companyÂ’s lead platform product includes MultiStem cell therapy, an allogeneic stem cell product, which has completed Phase 2 study for treating patients suffering from moderate and severe ischemic stroke; that is in Phase 2 clinical study for treating patients with acute myocardial infarction; and, which is in Phase 1/2 clinical study for treating patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome, as well as completed Phase 1 clinical study for patients suffering from leukemia or various other blood-borne cancers. It also develops MultiStem cell therapy to promote tissue repair and healing for animal patients; and 5HT2c agonists for the treatment of obesity and other conditions. The company has license and collaboration agreements with Healios K.K. and Chugai Pharmaceuticals Co., Ltd. to develop and commercialize MultiStem cell therapy for ischemic stroke; RTI Surgical, Inc. to develop and commercialize biologic implants for orthopedic applications in the bone graft substitutes market; University of Minnesota to develop MultiStem cell therapy platform; and Bristol-Myers Squibb Company to provide cell lines expressing well validated drug targets for compound screening and development. Athersys, Inc. was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio.

Aerpio Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, focuses on developing and commercializing treatments for ocular diseases. The company's lead product candidate is AKB-9778, a small molecule activator of the Tie2 pathway, which completed the Phase 2a clinical trial for the treatment of diabetic retinopathy. It also develops ARP-1536, a humanized monoclonal antibody that is in preclinical development stage for the treatment of diabetic vascular complications; and AKB-4924, a selective stabilizer of hypoxia-inducible factor-1 alpha, which has completed a single ascending dose clinical trial for the treatment of inflammatory bowel disease. The company is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. Aerpio Pharmaceuticals, Inc.(OTCPK:ARPO) operates independently of Akebia Therapeutics, Inc. as of December 22, 2011.