Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2011

Summary of Significant Accounting Policies [Abstract]

Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

1. Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

Basis of Presentation

     The accompanying unaudited condensed financial statements have been prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles for interim financial information and with the instructions to Form 10-Q and Article 10 of Regulation S-X. They have been prepared on a basis which assumes that the Company will continue as a going concern, which contemplates the realization of assets and the satisfaction of liabilities and commitments in the normal course of business. The financial statements do not include all of the information and footnotes required by U.S. generally accepted accounting principles for complete financial statements. In the opinion of management, however, all adjustments (consisting primarily of normal recurring accruals) considered necessary for a fair presentation have been included. Operating results for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2011 are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for the year ending December 31, 2011.

     The balance sheet at December 31, 2010 has been derived from the audited financial statements at that date but does not include all of the information and footnotes required by generally accepted accounting principles for complete financial statements. For further information, refer to the financial statements and footnotes thereto included in the Annual Report on Form 10-K for OXiGENE, Inc. (the “Company”) for the year ended December 31, 2010, which can be found at www.oxigene.com. The Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm at the beginning of the Consolidated Financial Statements section in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2010 includes a going concern explanatory paragraph.

     During the nine months ended September 30, 2011, the Company sold approximately 7,707,000 shares of common stock pursuant to an “at the market” (ATM) equity offering sales agreement with McNicoll, Lewis & Vlak LLC, or MLV, resulting in net proceeds to the Company of approximately $17,019,000. In October 2011 the Company sold approximately 86,000 shares of common stock pursuant to the ATM sales agreement resulting in net proceeds to the Company of approximately $128,000. There remains a total of approximately $3,700 in net proceeds of the maximum amount allowed under the Company’s prospectus supplement to Form S-3 dated July 8, 2011. No assurance can be given that the Company will sell any additional shares under the ATM sales agreement, or, if it does, as to the price or amount of shares that it will sell, or the dates on which any such sales will take place.

     On September 1, 2011, the Company announced a restructuring plan designed to focus the Company’s capital resources on its most promising early-stage clinical programs and further reduce its cash utilization. The Company announced the following key aspects of the restructuring and their effects on the Company’s operations including current and planned clinical trials:

• At this time, a Company sponsored Phase 3 registrational study of ZYBRESTAT in patients with anaplastic thyroid cancer (ATC) funded entirely by Company financial resources is not feasible. OXiGENE intends to continue to explore options for conducting such a study, including potential collaborations with national and international head and neck cancer cooperative groups. Future development decisions concerning ZYBRESTAT in patients with ATC will be made following a review of all options by OXiGENE’s management and its board of directors.

• OXiGENE is concluding the final analysis of its completed Phase 2 study of ZYBRESTAT in conjunction with standard chemotherapy and bevacizumab in patients with non-small cell lung cancer (FALCON study). Once the final overall survival data is available a decision regarding further development of the study of ZYBRESTAT in patients with NSCLC will be made. Any future development decisions concerning the study of ZYBRESTAT in patients with NSCLC will be made following review of final data by the Company’s management and board of directors.

• OXiGENE plans to continue to support the ongoing randomized Phase 2 trial of ZYBRESTAT in combination with bevacizumab in patients with relapsed ovarian cancer, which is an NCI-sponsored study being conducted by the Gynecologic Oncology Group (GOG), an organization dedicated to clinical research in the field of gynecologic cancer.

• OXiGENE plans to continue support of the ongoing investigator-sponsored Phase 1 trial of OXi4503 in patients with AML or myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), being conducted at the University of Florida and with support by The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Therapy Acceleration Program.

• OXiGENE will evaluate additional early-stage development opportunities for its two product candidates, ZYBRESTAT and OXi4503, subject to available resources at the time.

• The Company is reducing its workforce by 11 full-time equivalent employees or approximately 61%.

• The Company will seek to reduce the amount of space it currently rents, primarily by closing its office in Waltham, Massachusetts and by conducting its operations only out of its South San Francisco office as soon as practicable.

     The Company offered severance benefits to the terminated employees, and anticipates recording a total charge of approximately $1,200,000, primarily associated with personnel-related termination costs. In order to provide for an orderly transition, the Company is implementing the reduction in work force in a phased manner. The Company took a restructuring charge in the third quarter of 2011 of approximately $1,146,000, with the remainder expected to be taken over the following two quarters as the transition is effected. Substantially all of the charge is expected to represent cash expenditures. The Company anticipates that, with its current financial resources, it will be able to support the completion of the ongoing clinical studies outlined above. Should the Company decide to initiate additional studies, it would need to raise additional capital. Upon completion of the restructuring activities outlined above, the Company expects to reduce expenses from its current levels by an annual amount of approximately $2,000,000.

     Based on the Company’s current ongoing programs and operations and taking into consideration the expected reductions in cash utilization resulting from its September 2011 reduction in force, the Company’s expect its current cash resources will be sufficient to fund operations through the first half of fiscal 2013. However, OXiGENE’s cash requirements may vary materially from those now planned for or anticipated by management due to numerous risks and uncertainties. The Company is aggressively pursuing other forms of capital infusion including public or private financing, strategic partnerships or other arrangements with organizations that have capabilities and/or products that are complementary to the Company’s own capabilities and/or products, in order to continue the development of its product candidates. If the Company is unable to access additional funds when needed, it may not be able to continue the development of its product candidates or the Company could be required to delay, scale back or eliminate some or all of its development programs and other operations. Any additional equity financing, which may not be available to the Company or may not be available on favorable terms, will likely be dilutive to its current stockholders and debt financing, if available, may involve restrictive covenants. If the Company accesses funds through collaborative or licensing arrangements, it may be required to relinquish rights to some of its technologies or product candidates that it would otherwise seek to develop or commercialize on its own, on terms that are not favorable to the Company. The Company’s ability to access capital when needed is not assured and, if not achieved on a timely basis, will materially harm its business, financial condition and results of operations. As a result of this uncertainty and the substantial doubt about the Company’s ability to continue as a going concern as of December 31, 2010, the Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm at the beginning of the Consolidated Financial Statements section in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2010 includes a going concern explanatory paragraph. If the Company is unable to access additional funds in the future or reduce cash expenditures as anticipated, it is likely that the Company’s 2011 Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm will also include a going concern explanatory paragraph.

Fair Value

     The Company is required to disclose information on all assets and liabilities reported at fair value that enables an assessment of the inputs used in determining the reported fair values. The fair value hierarchy prioritizes valuation inputs based on the observable nature of those inputs. The fair value hierarchy applies only to the valuation inputs used in determining the reported fair value of the Company’s investments and is not a measure of the investment credit quality. The hierarchy defines three levels of valuation inputs:

Level 1 inputs	Quoted prices in active markets;
Level 2 inputs	Generally include inputs with other observable qualities, such as quoted prices in active markets for similar assets or quoted prices for identical assets in inactive markets; and
Level 3 inputs	Valuations based on unobservable inputs.

     As of September 30, 2011 and December 31, 2010, OXiGENE did not hold any assets or liabilities subject to these standards, except the derivative liabilities and other financial instruments discussed below in “Warrants”, which are valued using level 3 inputs. As of September 30, 2011 and December 31, 2010, OXiGENE held $12,664,000 and $4,677,000 in cash, cash equivalents and restricted cash, respectively. The Company has adopted the fair value standard as it relates to the non-recurring fair value measurements, such as the assessment of other long-lived assets for impairment.

Accrued Research and Development

     The Company charges all research and development expenses, both internal and external costs, to operations as incurred. The Company’s research and development costs represent expenses incurred from the engagement of outside professional service organizations, product manufacturers and consultants associated with the development of the Company’s potential product candidates. The Company recognizes expenses associated with these arrangements based on the completion of activities as specified in the applicable contracts. Costs incurred under fixed-fee contracts are expensed ratably over the contract period absent any knowledge that the services will be performed other than ratably. Costs incurred under contracts with clinical trial sites and principal investigators are generally accrued on a patient-treated basis consistent with the terms outlined in the contract. In determining costs incurred on some of these programs, the Company takes into consideration a number of factors, including estimates and input provided by internal program managers. Upon termination of such contracts, the Company is normally only liable for costs incurred and committed to date. As a result, accrued research and development expenses represent the Company’s reasonably estimated contractual liability to outside service providers at any particular point in time.

Accounting for Derivative Financial Instruments Indexed to and Potentially Settled in the Company’s Common stock

     The Company evaluates all derivative financial instruments issued in connection with its equity offerings when determining the proper accounting treatment for such instruments in the Company’s financial statements. The Company considers a number of generally accepted accounting principles to determine such treatment. The Company performs a number of steps to evaluate the features of the instrument against the guidance provided in the accounting pronouncements in order to determine the appropriate accounting treatment. The Company’s policy with regard to settling outstanding financial instruments is to settle those with the earliest maturity date first which essentially sets the order of preference for settling the awards. In the majority of circumstances, the Company utilizes the Black Scholes method to determine the fair value of its derivative financial instruments. In some cases, where appropriate, the Company utilizes the Binomial method or other appropriate methods to determine the fair value of such derivative financial instruments. Key valuation factors in determining the fair value include, but are not limited to, the current stock price as of the date of measurement, the exercise price, the remaining contractual life, expected volatility for the instrument and the risk-free interest rate. Changes in fair value are recorded as a gain or loss in the Company’s Statement of Operations with the corresponding amount recorded as an adjustment to liability on its Balance Sheet. The expected volatility factor, in particular, is subject to significant variability from measurement period to measurement period and can result in large gains or losses from period to period.

Patents and Patent Applications

     The Company has filed applications for patents in connection with technologies that it is developing. The patent applications and any patents issued as a result of these applications are important to the protection of the Company’s technologies that may result from its research and development efforts. Costs associated with patent applications and maintaining patents are expensed as general and administrative expense as incurred.

Stock-based Compensation

     The Company expenses the estimated fair value of all share-based payments issued to employees over the vesting period. The Company has a 2005 Stock Plan (“2005 Plan”) that provides for the award of stock options, restricted stock and stock appreciation rights to employees, directors and consultants to the Company. The Company also has a 2009 Employee Stock Purchase Plan (“2009 ESPP”).

     The Company is required to estimate the level of award forfeitures expected to occur and record compensation expense only for those awards that are ultimately expected to vest. This requirement applies to all awards that are not yet vested. Accordingly, OXiGENE performs a historical analysis of option awards that were forfeited prior to vesting, and ultimately records total stock option expense that reflects this estimated forfeiture rate. In the Company’s calculation, it segregates participants into two distinct groups, (1) directors and officers and (2) employees, and OXiGENE applies estimated forfeiture rates using the Straight Line method. This analysis is re-evaluated quarterly and the forfeiture rate is adjusted as necessary.

Income Taxes

     The Company accounts for income taxes based upon the provisions of ASC 740, Income Taxes. Under ASC 740, deferred taxes are recognized using the liability method whereby tax rates are applied to cumulative temporary differences between carrying amounts of assets and liabilities for financial reporting purposes and the amounts used for income tax purposes based on when and how they are expected to affect the tax return.

     Realization of the deferred tax assets is uncertain due to the historical losses of the Company and therefore a full valuation allowance has been established.