Full Description

OXiGENE, Inc. (OXiGENE), incorporated in 1988, is a clinical-stage, biopharmaceutical company developing therapeutics to treat cancer and eye diseases. The Company’s primary focus is the development and commercialization of product candidates referred to as vascular disrupting agents (VDAs) that selectively disable and destroy abnormal blood vessels that provide solid tumors a means of growth and survival and also are associated with visual impairment in a number of ophthalmological diseases and conditions. Approximately 375 subjects have been treated with ZYBRESTAT in human clinical trials.

ZYBRESTAT (fosbretabulin) is OXiGENE’s lead VDA product candidate. In the field of oncology, eleven clinical trials evaluating ZYBRESTAT as a treatment for advanced solid tumor cancers have been completed and approximately 350 cancer patients have been treated with ZYBRESTAT, either as a monotherapy or in combination with other cancer treatment modalities. In addition, in seven Phase I and II studies to date, ZYBRESTAT has demonstrated significant tumor blood-flow reducing effects following administration as determined with multiple imaging modalities.ZYBRESTAT is being evaluated in a 180-patient, controlled, randomized pivotal registration study, which it refer to as the FACT trial.

Anaplastic Thyroid Cancer (ATC) is one of the lethal cancers known to afflict humans. Unlike other types of thyroid cancer. The median survival from time of diagnosis for patients with ATC is approximately 3-4 months, and there is no approved therapy for ATC at this time. ATC represents between 1 and 5% of all thyroid cancers, and patients with other forms of thyroid cancer can develop ATC as a secondary disease. The Company estimates that 1,000 to 4,000 people in the United States and Europe are diagnosed each year with ATC. ZYBRESTAT is being evaluated in a 60-patient, Phase II, randomized controlled trial, which it refer to as the FALCON Trial, as a potential first-line treatment for patients with stage IIIb/IV NSCLC. Patients on the treatment arm receive ZYBRESTAT, anti-angiogenic therapy (bevacizumab) and chemotherapy (carboplatin and paclitaxel), whereas patients on the control arm of the study receive anti-angiogenic therapy and chemotherapy.

OXiGENE completed a Phase Ib clinical trial to evaluate ZYBRESTAT in combination with bevacizumab in patients with advanced solid tumors. This was the first human clinical trial to pair a vascular disrupting agent and an anti-angiogenic drug in the treatment of cancer, specifically in people who have failed previous treatments and are in advanced stages of disease. The trial was an open-label, multi-center trial designed to determine the safety and tolerability of ascending doses of ZYBRESTAT administered intravenously in combination with bevacizumab. Three dose levels of ZYBRESTAT were evaluated in combination with an approved dose of bevacizumab. In May of 2008, OXiGENE reported final data from the trial showing that the two-drug combination appeared safe and well-tolerated with early signs of clinical efficacy (9 of 16 patients with stable disease responses with prolonged stable disease observed in several patients) and additive effects on tumor blood-flow inhibition.

The Company is engaged in development of OXi4503, a second-generation, dual-mechanism VDA, as a treatment for for certain solid and liquid tumor types (e.g., leukemia, hepatic tumors, and melanoma) in which oxidative enzymes are believed to be present in relatively high quantities. The Company believes that OXi4503 is differentiated from other VDAs by its dual-action activity. The Company’s data indicate that in addition to having potent vascular disrupting effects, OXi4503 can be metabolized by oxidative enzymes to an orthoquinone chemical species that has direct cytoxic effects on tumor cells. Based on pre-clinical studies, the Company believes that OXi4503 may have enhanced activity in tumor types with relatively high levels of oxidative enzymes that can facilitate the metabolism of the active OXi4503 VDA to a cytotoxic orthoquinone species.

The Company competes with Novartis, AstraZeneca, sanofi-aventis, Myriad, Nereus and MediciNova.