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Filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on January 24, 2002
Registration No.______________

UNITED STATES SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM S-8

REGISTRATION STATEMENT
UNDER
THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933

Aastrom Biosciences, Inc.

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Michigan		94-3096597
(State or other jurisdiction of incorporation or organization)		(I.R.S. employer identification no.)

45 Frank Lloyd Wright Drive
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48105

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Aastrom Biosciences, Inc. 2001 Stock Option Plan

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Michael A. Brodeur, Chief Financial Officer
Aastrom Biosciences, Inc.
45 Frank Lloyd Wright Drive
Ann Arbor, Michigan 48105

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Telephone number, including area code, of agent for service: (734) 930-5535

This registration statement shall hereafter become effective in accordance with Rule 462 promulgated under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

 

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PART II INFORMATION REQUIRED IN THE REGISTRATION STATEMENT
	Item 3. Incorporation of Documents by Reference
	Item 4. Description of Securities
	Item 5. Interests of Named Experts and Counsel
	Item 6. Indemnification of Directors and Officers
	Item 7. Exemption From Registration Claimed
	Item 8. Exhibits
	Item 9. Undertakings
SIGNATURE
EXHIBIT INDEX
EXHIBIT 5
EXHIBIT 23.2

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						Proposed				Proposed
		Amount				maximum				maximum
Title of securities		To be				offering price				aggregate				Amount of
to be registered1		registered2				per share3				offering price3				registration fee
2001 Stock Option Plan
Common Stock ($no par value)			2,100,000			$	.99			$	2,079,000			$	192.00
Total			2,100,000							$	2,079,000			$	192.00

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PART II

INFORMATION REQUIRED IN THE REGISTRATION STATEMENT

Item 3. Incorporation of Documents by Reference

     Aastrom Biosciences, Inc. (the “Company”) hereby incorporates by reference in this registration statement the following documents:

     (a)  The Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended June 30, 2001, as filed with the Commission on September 14, 2001 (File Number 000-22025).

     (b)  All other reports filed by the Company pursuant to Section 13(a) or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”) since the end of the fiscal year covered by the document referred to in (a) above.

     (c)  The description of the Company’s Common Stock contained in the Company’s Registration Statement on Form 8-A, filed pursuant to Section 12 of the Exchange Act, including any amendment or report filed for the purpose of updating such description.

     All documents subsequently filed by the Company pursuant to Sections 13(a), 13(c), 14 and 15(d) of the Exchange Act, prior to the filing of a post-effective amendment to this registration statement which indicates that all securities offered hereby have been sold or which deregisters all securities remaining unsold, shall be deemed to be incorporated by reference in this registration statement and to be a part hereof from the date of filing of such documents.

Item 4. Description of Securities

     The class of securities to be offered is registered under Section 12 of the Exchange Act.

Item 5. Interests of Named Experts and Counsel

     Inapplicable.

Item 6. Indemnification of Directors and Officers

     Sections 1561 through 1571 of the Michigan Business Corporation Act (the “MBCA”) authorize a corporation to grant or a court to award, indemnity to directors, officers, employees and agents in terms sufficiently broad to permit such indemnification under certain circumstances for liabilities (including reimbursement for expenses incurred) arising under the Securities Act of 1933.

 

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     The Bylaws of the Company provide that the Company shall, to the fullest extent authorized or permitted by the MBCA, or other applicable law, indemnify a director or officer who was or is a party or is threatened to be made a party to any proceeding by or in the right of the Company to procure a judgment in its favor by reason of the fact that such person is or was a director, officer, employee or agent of the Company, against expenses, including actual and reasonable attorneys’ fees, and amounts paid in settlement incurred in connection with the action or suit, if the indemnitee acted in good faith and in a manner the person reasonably believed to be in, or not opposed to, the best interests of the Company or its shareholders. This section also authorizes the Company to advance expenses incurred by any agent of the Company in defending any proceeding prior to the final disposition of such proceeding upon receipt of an undertaking by or on behalf of the agent to repay such amount unless it shall be determined ultimately that the agent is entitled to be indemnified.

     The Bylaws also authorize the Company to purchase and maintain insurance on behalf of any person who is or was a director, officer, employee or agent of the Company against any liability asserted against or incurred by such person in such capacity or arising out of such person’s status as such, regardless of whether the Company would have the power to indemnify such person against such liability under the provisions of the MBCA.

     The Company has entered into indemnification agreements with certain individuals which contain provisions that may in some respects be broader than the specific indemnification provisions contained under applicable law. The indemnification agreement may require the Company, among other things, to indemnify such directors, officers and key personnel against certain liabilities that may arise by reason of their status or service as directors, officers or employees of the Company, to advance the expenses incurred by such parties as a result of any threatened claims or proceedings brought against them as to which they could be indemnified, and to the maximum extent that insurance coverage of such directors, officers and key employees under the Company’s directors’ and officers’ liability insurance policies is maintained.

     Section 1209 of the MBCA permits a Michigan corporation to include in its Articles of Incorporation a provision eliminating or limiting a director’s liability to a corporation or its shareholders for monetary damages for breaches of fiduciary duty. The enabling statute provides, however, that liability for breaches of the duty of loyalty, acts or omissions not in good faith or involving intentional misconduct or knowing violations of the law, or the receipt of improper personal benefits cannot be eliminated or limited in this manner. The Company’s Restated Articles of Incorporation include a provision which eliminates, to the fullest extent permitted by the MBCA, director liability for monetary damages for breaches of fiduciary duty.

Item 7. Exemption From Registration Claimed

     Inapplicable.

 

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Item 8. Exhibits

     See Exhibit Index.

Item 9. Undertakings

     (a)  Rule 415 Offering

     The undersigned registrant hereby undertakes:

     (1)  To file, during any period in which offers or sales are being made, a post-effective amendment to this registration statement:

          (i) To include any prospectus required by Section 10(a)(3) of the Securities Act;

          (ii) To reflect in the prospectus any facts or events arising after the effective date of the registration statement (or the most recent post-effective amendment thereof) which, individually or in the aggregate, represent a fundamental change in the information set forth in the registration statement;

          (iii) To include any material information with respect to the plan of distribution not previously disclosed in the registration statement or any material change to such information in the registration statement;

provided, however, that paragraphs (a)(1)(i) and (a)(l)(ii) do not apply if the registration statement is on Form S-3 or Form S-8, and the information required to be included in a post-effective amendment by those paragraphs is contained in periodic reports filed by the registrant pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Exchange Act that are incorporated by reference in the registration statement.

     (2)  That, for the purpose of determining any liability under the Securities Act, each such post-effective amendment shall be deemed to be a new registration statement relating to the securities offered therein, and the offering of such securities at that time shall be deemed to be the initial bona fide offering thereof.

     (3)  To remove from registration by means of a post-effective amendment any of the securities being registered which remain unsold at the termination of the offering.

     (b) Filing incorporating subsequent Exchange Act documents by reference

     The undersigned registrant hereby undertakes that, for purposes of determining any liability under the Securities Act, each filing of the registrant’s annual report pursuant to Section 13(a) or Section 15(d) of the Exchange Act (and, where applicable, each filing of an employee benefit plan’s annual report pursuant to Section 15(d) of the Exchange Act) that is

 

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incorporated by reference in the registration statement shall be deemed to be a new registration statement relating to the securities offered therein, and the offering of such securities at that time shall be deemed to be the initial bona fide offering thereof.

     (h)  Request for acceleration of effective date or filing of registration statement on Form S-8

     Insofar as indemnification for liabilities arising under the Securities Act may be permitted to directors, officers and controlling persons of the registrant pursuant to the foregoing provisions, or otherwise, the registrant has been advised that in the opinion of the Securities and Exchange Commission such indemnification is against public policy as expressed in the Securities Act and is, therefore, unenforceable. In the event that a claim for indemnification against such liabilities (other than the payment by the registrant of expenses incurred or paid by a director, officer or controlling person of the registrant in the successful defense of any action, suit or proceeding) is asserted by such director, officer or controlling person in connection with the securities being registered, the registrant will, unless in the opinion of its counsel the matter has been settled by controlling precedent, submit to a court of appropriate jurisdiction the question whether such indemnification by it is against public policy as expressed in the Securities Act and will be governed by the final adjudication of such issue.

SIGNATURE

     Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Act, the registrant certifies that it has reasonable grounds to believe that it meets all of the requirements for filing on Form S-8 and has duly caused this registration statement to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized, in the City of Ann Arbor, State of Michigan, on January 24, 2002.

	AASTROM BIOSCIENCES, INC.
	By:	/s/ R. Douglas Armstrong
		R. Douglas Armstrong Chief Executive Officer

 

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POWER OF ATTORNEY

     The officers and directors of Aastrom Biosciences, Inc. whose signatures appear below, hereby constitute and appoint R. Douglas Armstrong and Mike A. Brodeur, and each of them, their true and lawful attorneys and agents, with full power of substitution, each with power to act alone, to sign and execute on behalf of the undersigned any amendment or amendments to this registration statement on Form S-8, and each of the undersigned does hereby ratify and confirm all that each of said attorney and agent, or their or his substitutes, shall do or cause to be done by virtue hereof.

     Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, this registration statement has been signed by the following persons in the capacities indicated on January 24, 2002.

Signature				Title
/s/ R. Douglas Armstrong R. Douglas Armstrong				Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board (Principal Executive Officer)
/s/ Michael A. Brodeur Michael A. Brodeur				Vice President and Chief Financial Officer (Principal Financial and Accounting Officer)
/s/ Fabrizio Bonanni Fabrizio Bonanni				Director
/s/ Arthur F. Staubitz Arthur F. Staubitz				Director
/s/ Alan M. Wright Alan M. Wright				Director
/s/ Mary L. Campbell Mary L. Campbell				Director
/s/ Joseph A. Taylor Joseph A. Taylor				Director

 

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EXHIBIT INDEX

4.1		Restated Certificate of Incorporation of the Company is incorporated by reference to Exhibit 4.1 to the Company’s Registration Statement on Form S-3 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission effective June 20, 2000 (File No. 333-39698)
4.2		Bylaws of the Company are incorporated by reference to Exhibit 4.2 to the Company’s Registration Statement on Form S-3 filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission effective June 20, 2000 (File No. 333-39698)
5		Opinion re: legality
23.1		Consent of Counsel (included in Exhibit 5)
23.2		Independent Auditors’ Consent
24		Power of Attorney (included in signature pages to this registration statement)

 

EXHIBIT 5

OPINION RE LEGALITY



January 24, 2002


Securities and Exchange Commission
450 Fifth Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C.  20549


        Re:    Aastrom Biosciences, Inc. Registration Statement on Form S-8
               Registering Shares Issuable Under the 2001 Stock Option Plan

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen:

               As legal counsel for Aastrom Biosciences, Inc., a Michigan
corporation (the "Company"), we are rendering this opinion in connection with
the registration under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, of up to
2,100,000 shares of the Common Stock, no par value, of the Company which may be
issued pursuant to options granted under the Aastrom Biosciences, Inc. 2001
Stock Option Plan (the "Plan").

               We have examined all instruments, documents, and records that we
deemed relevant and necessary for the basis of our opinion hereinafter
expressed. In such examination, we have assumed the genuineness of all
signatures and the authenticity of all documents submitted to us as originals
and the conformity to the originals of all documents submitted to us as copies.

               Based on such examination, we are of the opinion that the
2,100,000 shares of Common Stock that may be issued under the Plan are duly
authorized shares of the Company's Common Stock, and, when issued against
payment of the purchase price therefor and in accordance with the provisions of
the Plan, will be validly issued, fully paid, and non-assessable.

               We hereby consent to the filing of this opinion as an exhibit to
the Registration Statement referred to above and the use of our name wherever it
appears in said Registration Statement.

                                            Respectfully Submitted,

                                            /s/ Pepper Hamilton LLP
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                                            Pepper Hamilton LLP

EXHIBIT 23.2


INDEPENDENT AUDITORS' CONSENT

We hereby consent to the incorporation by reference in this Registration
Statement on Form S-8 of our report dated August 10, 2001, except for Note 9,
which is as of September 5, 2001, which appears in Aastrom Biosciences, Inc.'s
Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended June 30, 2001.


/s/ PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

Minneapolis, Minnesota
January 22, 2002