EpiCept Announces Substantial Debt Reduction

EpiCept Announces Substantial Debt Reduction 

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

EpiCept Corporation (Nasdaq and OMX Nordic Exchange: EPCT) announced today that
as a result of the recent conversion of approximately $1.9 million of its senior
secured debt into its common stock and scheduled loan payments, the outstanding
principal balance of its senior secured debt has been almost completely repaid.
The Company reported outstanding senior secured debt at September 30, 2008 of
$2.8 million. The remaining nominal balance of the Company's senior secured loan
will be repaid, together with any remaining fees, by the due date of April 1,
2009 or earlier. 

EpiCept also announced today that its other lender, Technologie-Beteiligungs
GmbH der Deutschen Ausgleichsbank (“tbg”), agreed to delay repayment of its €1.5
million loan until June 30, 2009. The loan was previously due to be repaid on
December 31, 2008. Interest will continue to accrue at its current rate of 7.38%
and EpiCept will pay accrued interest on December 31, 2008 and June 30, 2009. 

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
Ceplene(R), a cytokine immunomodulator that recently received marketing
authorization in Europe for the remission maintenance of AML patients, and
several pain therapies in clinical development. 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 risks associated with the adequacy of our existing cash resources,
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 risk
that the Company's securities may be delisted by The Nasdaq Capital Market or
the OMX Nordic Exchange and that any appeal of the delisting determination may
not be successful, the risk that Ceplene® will not receive regulatory approval
or marketing authorization in the U.S. or Canada, the risk that Ceplene® will
not be launched in Europe in the first half of 2009 or achieve significant
commercial success, the risk that we are unable to find a suitable marketing
partner for Ceplene® on attractive terms, a timely basis or at all, the risk
that any required post-approval clinical study will not be successful, the risk
that EpiCept will not be able to maintain its final regulatory approval or
marketing authorization, the risk that Myriad's development of Azixa™ will not
be successful, the risk that Azixa™ 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, including our current
clinical trial in PHN, 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 other product candidates, the risks associated
with our 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. 


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