Description of Business

12 Months Ended

Dec. 31, 2016

Accounting Policies [Abstract]

Description of Business

1.    Description of Business

Mateon Therapeutics, Inc. (“Mateon” or the “Company”) is a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company seeking to realize the full potential of vascular targeted therapy in oncology. Vascular targeted therapy includes vascular disrupting agents (VDAs), such as the investigational drugs that Mateon is developing, and anti-angiogenic agents (AAs), a number of which are approved and widely used in oncology indications. Mateon’s VDAs selectively obstruct a tumor’s blood supply without obstructing the blood supply to normal tissues, and treatment with Mateon’s VDAs has been shown to lead to significant central tumor necrosis. The Company believes that the treatment of cancer would be significantly improved if VDAs and AAs were used together, due to their complementary mechanisms of action. In combination, the VDA would occlude the blood vessels in the interior of a tumor while the AA would prevent the formation of new tumor blood vessels. The Company has two VDA drug candidates currently being tested in clinical trials, CA4P (combretastatin A4 phosphate, or fosbretabulin) and OXi4503. The Company was originally incorporated under the name OXiGENE, Inc. in 1988 in the state of New York and reincorporated in 1992 in the state of Delaware. Effective June 17, 2016, the Company amended its Certificate of Incorporation to change its name to Mateon Therapeutics, Inc.