Notice of the Annual Meeting of Stockholders of EpiCept Corporation


Notice of the Annual Meeting of Stockholders of EpiCept Corporation

    TARRYTOWN, N.Y.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 15, 2008--Regulatory News:

    With this notice, stockholders of EpiCept Corporation (Nasdaq and
OMX Nordic Exchange: EPCT) are invited to the Annual Meeting of
Stockholders (the "Annual Meeting") on Wednesday, May 21, 2008, at
10:00 AM EDT at the offices of Weil, Gotshal & Manges, LLP, 767 Fifth
Avenue, New York, New York.

    EpiCept stockholders of record at the close of business on April
2, 2008 (the "Record Date") are entitled to vote at the Annual
Meeting.

    On April 8, 2008, a notice of the Annual Meeting with the 2008
Proxy Statement was mailed to all EpiCept stockholders of record on
the Record Date. Stockholders of record may grant a proxy with respect
to their shares on the internet or by mail. Voting instructions appear
on the proxy card attached to the 2008 Proxy Statement. If you are an
EpiCept stockholder of record and did not receive a proxy card, please
contact Mr. Robert Cook at (914) 606-3500.

    Items to be Discussed During the Annual Meeting:

    Item One:

    The first item to be discussed is the election of two directors as
Class III directors to hold office until the 2011 Annual Meeting and
until their respective successors are elected and qualified. The two
nominees for election at the Annual Meeting are listed below with
brief biographies. They are both currently EpiCept directors.

    Robert G. Savage has been a member of EpiCept's Board since
December 2004 and serves as the Chairman of the Board. Mr. Savage has
been a senior pharmaceutical executive for over twenty years. He held
the position of Worldwide Chairman of the Pharmaceuticals Group at
Johnson & Johnson and was both a company officer and a member of the
Executive Committee. He also served Johnson & Johnson in the capacity
of a Company Group Chairman and President of Ortho-McNeil
Pharmaceuticals. Most recently, Mr. Savage was President of the
Worldwide Inflammation Group for Pharmacia Corporation and is
presently President and CEO of Strategic Imagery LLC, a consulting
company which he is the principal of. He has held multiple positions
leading marketing, business development and strategic planning at
Hoffmann-La Roche and Sterling Drug. Mr. Savage is a director of The
Medicines Company, a specialty pharmaceutical company, Noven
Pharmaceuticals, a drug delivery company and Panacos Pharmaceuticals,
Inc., a development stage biotechnology company. Mr. Savage received a
B.S. in Biology from Upsala College and an M.B.A. from Rutgers
University.

    John V. Talley has been EpiCept's President, Chief Executive
Officer and a Director since October 2001. Mr. Talley has more than 29
years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. Prior to joining
EpiCept, Mr. Talley was the Chief Executive Officer of Consensus
Pharmaceuticals, a biotechnology drug discovery start-up company that
developed a proprietary peptide-based combinatorial library screening
process. Prior to joining Consensus, Mr. Talley led Penwest Ltd.'s
efforts in its spin-off of its subsidiary Penwest Pharmaceuticals Co.
in 1998 and served as President and Chief Operating Officer of Penwest
Pharmaceuticals. Mr. Talley started his career at Sterling Drug Inc.,
where he was responsible for all U.S. marketing activities for
prescription drugs, helped launch various new pharmaceutical products
and participated in the 1988 acquisition of Sterling Drug by Eastman
Kodak Co. Mr. Talley received his B.S. in Chemistry from the
University of Connecticut and completed coursework towards an M.B.A.
in Marketing from New York University, Graduate School of Business.

    The Board recommends that holders of EpiCept common stock vote for
the election of Robert G. Savage and John V. Talley.

    Item Two:

    The second item to be discussed is the ratification of the
selection by the Audit Committee of the Company's Board of Directors
of Deloitte & Touche LLP as the independent registered public
accounting firm for the year ending December 31, 2008. Deloitte &
Touche LLP was EpiCept's independent registered public accounting firm
for the year-ended December 31, 2007. The Board recommends that
stockholders vote for the ratification of the selection of Deloitte &
Touche LLP as EpiCept's independent registered public accounting firm
for the year ended December 31, 2008.

    Item Three:

    The third item to be discussed is whether to amend the certificate
of incorporation to increase the number of authorized shares of common
stock to 180,000,000 shares. On DATE NEEDED, 2008, the Board approved
the submission to the stockholders of an amendment to EpiCept's Second
Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation to increase the
number of authorized shares of common stock of EpiCept from 80,000,000
(consisting of (i) 75,000,000 shares of common stock of the Company,
par value US$0.0001 per share, and (ii) 5,000,000 shares of preferred
stock of the Company, par value US$0.0001 per share) to 180,000,000
(consisting of (i) 175,000,000 shares of common stock of the Company,
par value US$0.0001 per share, and (ii) 5,000,000 shares of preferred
stock of the Company, par value US$0.0001 per share). The Board
recommends that stockholders vote for the amendment of the certificate
of incorporation to increase the number of authorized shares of common
stock.

    Items Four and Five:

    The fourth item to be discussed is whether to adjourn the Annual
Meeting to solicit additional proxies in the event there are
insufficient votes to approve Proposals 1, 2, or 3. If it is necessary
to adjourn the Annual Meeting and the adjournment is for a period of
less than 30 days, no notice of the time or place of the reconvened
meeting will be given to stockholders, other than an announcement made
at the Annual Meeting.

    The fifth item to be voted upon is to authorize the persons named
on the proxy card to vote the shares represented thereby in accordance
with their best judgment in relation to any other matters to come
before the stockholders at the Annual Meeting. The Company is aware of
no such matters to be submitted to the stockholders at the Annual
Meeting.

    Documents:

    Stockholders may obtain copies of the annual report and all
complete board proposals on EpiCept's website at www.epicept.com.

    These documents will also be available at the Annual Meeting.

    About EpiCept Corporation

    EpiCept is focused on unmet needs in the treatment of cancer and
pain. The Company's broad portfolio of pharmaceutical product
candidates includes several pain therapies in clinical development and
a lead oncology compound for AML with demonstrated efficacy in a Phase
III trial; a marketing authorization application for this compound
recently received a negative opinion and is being re-examined in
Europe. In addition, EpiCept's ASAP technology, a proprietary live
cell high-throughput caspase-3 screening technology, can efficiently
identify new cancer drug candidates and molecular targets that
selectively induce apoptosis in cancer cells. Two oncology drug
candidates currently in clinical development that were discovered
using this technology have also been shown to act as vascular
disruption agents in a variety of solid tumors.

    Forward-Looking Statements

    This news release and any oral statements made with respect to the
information contained in this news release, contains forward-looking
statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements include statements
which express plans, anticipation, intent, contingency, goals,
targets, future development and are otherwise not statements of
historical fact. These statements are based on EpiCept's current
expectations and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could
cause actual results or developments to be materially different from
historical results or from any future results expressed or implied by
such forward-looking statements. Factors that may cause actual results
or developments to differ materially include: the risk that the
stockholders will not approve the aforementioned items or that the
Company will not have sufficient authorized shares of stock to raise
equity capital, the risks associated with the adequacy of our existing
cash resources and our need to raise additional financing to continue
to meet our capital needs and our ability to continue as a going
concern, the risks associated with our ability to continue to meet our
obligations under our existing debt agreements or that we may default
on our loans or that our lenders may declare the Company in default or
that our secured lender would seek to sell our assets, the risks that
we may not be able to extend the maturity of our euro-denominated
loan, the risk that the Company's securities may be delisted by The
Nasdaq Capital Market and that any appeal of the delisting
determination may not be successful, the risk that our appeal of the
negative opinion regarding the MAA for Ceplene(R) will not be
successful and that Ceplene(R) will not receive regulatory approval or
marketing authorization in the EU, the risk that Ceplene(R), if
approved, will not achieve significant commercial success, the risk
that Myriad's development of Azixa(TM) will not be successful, the
risk that Azixa(TM) will not receive regulatory approval or achieve
significant commercial success, the risk that we will not receive any
significant payments under our agreement with Myriad, the risk that
the development of our other apoptosis product candidates will not be
successful, the risk that our ASAP technology will not yield any
successful product candidates, the risk that clinical trials for NP-1
or EPC2407 will not be successful, the risk that NP-1 or EPC2407 will
not receive regulatory approval or achieve significant commercial
success, the risk that our other product candidates that appeared
promising in early research and clinical trials do not demonstrate
safety and/or efficacy in larger-scale or later stage clinical trials,
the risk that we will not obtain approval to market any of our product
candidates, the risks associated with dependence upon key personnel,
the risks associated with reliance on collaborative partners and
others for further clinical trials, development, manufacturing and
commercialization of our product candidates; the cost, delays and
uncertainties associated with our scientific research, product
development, clinical trials and regulatory approval process; our
history of operating losses since our inception; the highly
competitive nature of our business; risks associated with litigation;
and risks associated with our ability to protect our intellectual
property. These factors and other material risks are more fully
discussed in EpiCept's periodic reports, including its reports on
Forms 8-K, 10-Q and 10-K and other filings with the U.S. Securities
and Exchange Commission. You are urged to carefully review and
consider the disclosures found in EpiCept's filings which are
available at www.sec.gov or at www.epicept.com. You are cautioned not
to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, any of
which could turn out to be wrong due to inaccurate assumptions,
unknown risks or uncertainties or other risk factors.

    EPCT-GEN

    *Azixa is a registered trademark of Myriad Genetics, Inc.


CONTACT: EpiCept Corporation:
             Robert W. Cook, 914-606-3500
             rcook@epicept.com
             or
             Media:
             Feinstein Kean Healthcare
             Greg Kelley, 617-577-8110
             gregory.kelley@fkhealth.com
             or
             Investors:
             Lippert/Heilshorn & Associates
             Kim Sutton Golodetz, 212-838-3777
             kgolodetz@lhai.com
             or
             Bruce Voss, 310-691-7100
             bvoss@lhai.com

Attachments

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