Note 12 - Stockholders' equity:

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2011

Shareholders' Equity and Share-based Payments [Text Block]

12.  Stockholders’ equity

(a)Authorized:

The authorized share capital of the Company consists of an unlimited number of common shares without par value and an unlimited number of preferred shares without par value issuable in series.

 (b)Issued and outstanding:

	Number
Common stock	of shares
Balance, December 31, 2009		60,513,911
Issued for cash upon exercise of options		442,694
Issued upon exercise of options in cashless transactions (note 12(c))		95,757
Balance, December 31, 2010		61,052,362
Issued for cash upon exercise of options		73,152
Issued upon exercise of options in cashless transactions (note 12(c))		3,577
Balance, December 31, 2011		61,129,091

(c)Stock options:

The Company’s 2001 amended stock option plan (2001 Amended Plan) provides for the granting of options to executive officers and directors, employees, and consultants of the Company. The 2001 Amended Plan, as approved by the shareholders, permits the maximum aggregate number of common shares issuable to be 7,000,000 common shares. The shares available for issuance generally vest over periods of up to four years with a maximum term of five years. The 2001 Amended plan restricts the maximum number of stock options issuable to insiders to 10% of the issued and outstanding common shares of the Company.

On May 26, 2010, the shareholders approved amendments to the 2001 Stock Option Plan. These amendments (i) permit the cashless exercise of options without payment of cash consideration, where the option holder receives the intrinsic value of the exercised options in the form of common shares issued from treasury, and (ii) provide option holders, at the discretion of the Board of Directors or Chief Executive Officer, with a cash surrender right which entitles the holder to surrender options and receive the intrinsic value of the surrendered options in cash.      

Details of the stock option transactions for the years ended December 31, 2011 and 2010 are summarized as follows:

	Number			Weighted average exercise price (CAD$)		Weighted average remaining contractual life (years)		Aggregate intrinsic value (CAD$)
Outstanding as at December 31, 2009		6,339,031			7.45
Options granted		379,000			7.28
Options exercised(1)		(772,483	)		5.85
Options forfeited		(183,832	)		7.89
Options expired		(52,667	)		6.99
Outstanding as at December 31, 2010		5,709,049			7.65		2.24		4,525
Options granted		559,000			4.28
Options exercised(2)		(85,051	)		4.84
Options forfeited		(258,482	)		7.82
Options expired		(1,039,553	)		8.81
Outstanding as at December 31, 2011		4,884,963			7.05		1.99	Nil
Exercisable as at December 31, 2011		3,712,248			7.74		1.70	Nil
Vested and expected to vest as at December 31, 2011		4,752,105			7.11		1.94	Nil

(1)   During the year ended December 31, 2010, the Company issued 95,757 shares in exchange for 329,089 stock options in cashless exercise transactions.

(2)   During the year ended December 31, 2011, the Company issued 3,577 shares in exchange for 11,899 stock options in cashless exercise transactions.

The outstanding options expire at various dates from March 5, 2012 to September 25, 2016.

At December 31, 2011, stock options to executive officers and directors, employees and consultants were outstanding as follows:

		Options outstanding						Options exercisable
				Weighted
				average		Weighted				Weighted
				remaining		average				average
Range of				contractual		exercise				exercise
exercise prices		Number		life (years)		price		Number		price
						(CAD$)				(CAD$)
$	3.65 to $4.15		290,000		4.68		3.66		135,125		3.65
$	4.65 to $6.24		2,823,117		2.27		4.76		1,867,777		4.72
$	7.89 to $8.64		192,000		3.39		8.43		129,500		8.40
$	8.98 to $13.93		1,579,846		0.81		11.61		1,579,846		11.61
			4,884,963		1.99		7.05		3,712,248		7.74

A summary of the Company’s non-vested stock option activity and related information for the year ended December 31, 2011 is as follows:

	Number			Weighted average
	of			grant-date fair value
Non-vested options	options			(U.S.$)
Non-vested at December 31, 2010		1,695,607			2.53
Granted		559,000			2.20
Vested		(983,590	)		2.37
Forfeited		(98,302	)		2.40
Non-vested at December 31, 2011		1,172,715			2.51

                As of December 31, 2011, there was $814 of total unrecognized compensation cost related to non-vested stock options. That cost is expected to be recognized over a weighted average period of 1.3 years.

The aggregate intrinsic value of stock options exercised during the year ended December 31, 2011 was $140 (2010 - $1,974).

The aggregate fair value of vested options during the year ended December 31, 2011 was $2,334 (2010 - $3,973).

Cash received during the year ended December 31, 2011 related to the exercise of stock options was $358.

(d)Stock-based compensation:

The estimated fair value of options granted from December 1, 2002 to executive officers and directors, and employees is amortized over the vesting period. Compensation expense is recorded in research and development expenses and general and administration expenses as follows:

	2011		2010
Research and development	$	749	$	1,138
General and administration		1,182		2,139
Total	$	1,931	$	3,277

The weighted average fair value of stock options granted during the years ended December 31, 2011 and December 31, 2010 was $2.20 and $3.50 per option respectively. The estimated fair value of the stock options granted was determined using the Black-Scholes option pricing model with the following weighted-average assumptions:

		2011			2010
Dividend yield		0	%		0	%
Expected volatility		63.8	%		62.2	%
Risk-free interest rate		1.8	%		2.3	%
Expected average life of the options	4.2 years			4.1 years

The Company estimates forfeitures for unvested options as a percentage of stock-based compensation. For the period ended December 31, 2011, the Company applied an estimated percentage of 11.4%, which management considered to be a reasonable estimate of actual forfeitures.

There is no dividend yield as the Company has not paid, and does not plan to pay, dividends on its common shares. The expected volatility is based on the historical share price volatility of the Company’s daily share closing prices over a period equal to the expected life of each option grant. The risk-free interest rate is based on yields from Canadian government bond yields with a term equal to the expected term of the options being valued. The expected life of options represents the period of time that the options are expected to be outstanding based on the contractual term of the options and on historical data of option holder exercise and post-vesting employment termination behaviour.