I didn't say "still". The FF presentation is dated 2016, a...

I didn't say "still". The FF presentation is dated 2016, a licence option between the two was signed in 2017, the article is dated 2018, the actual licence was taken up in September 2019, and in January 2020 COVID reached Japan, by October 2020 the number of confirmed cases exceeded China (official figures...). In September 2021, Japan was in the top 25 of countries with the most COVID cases. In October, FujiFilm and Cynata parted licensing ways and entered into a "strategic partnership":
https://www.bioworld.com/articles/512020-cynata-regains-rights-to-cymerus-from-fujifilm-after-covid-19-slows-development-in-japan?v=preview

Now, no, back then, yes.

Nostalgia doesn't pay the bills, US$5 million pays some bills.

Would I have preferred for FF to pull their fingers out during the whole time since 2016 and not delaying the clinical development - I sure do. Due to that, CLI P2 (already approved in the UK at the time) was put on hold for the forseeable future as allocated funds had to be shifted towards GvHD as that has been considered the IND trial in the US, albeit at FF's cost.
And without a partner familiar with the Japanese regulators, I can understand that for Cynata the pathway in Japan and the US was too much of a stretch. So yes, on ice it is for the time being, since he also doesn't appear to have a uni buddy to throw money at Cynata when needed. At the time, I was hopeful that a partner could be found in Japan to continue FF's work due to the wording of the terms in the breakup letter, but that has not been the case (yet). This may change with initial P2 results in the US, who knows.