EpiCept Corporation (Nasdaq: EPCT) announced last night that it received a refusal to file letter from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on the New Drug Application (NDA) for Ceplene® (histamine dihydrochloride).

Ceplene® is EpiCept’s novel therapeutic candidate for the remission maintenance and prevention of relapse of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) in first remission, which was approved in the European Union in 2008 and is co-administered with low-dose interleukin-2 (IL-2).

Company officials at EpiCept say they intend to request a meeting with the FDA as soon as possible to discuss its comments on the NDA submission. The Company retains the right to file the NDA over FDA objections.

“We are surprised and obviously very disappointed by the FDA’s decision on our application,” commented Jack Talley, President and Chief Executive Officer of EpiCept. “The Ceplene/IL-2 regimen, which is being rolled out to patients in the European Union, is the only approved treatment that has been shown to prevent relapse of AML patients, of whom the majority will die within a year should a relapse occur. We believe that the results of the Ceplene® Phase III AML study, which demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in leukemia free survival without impacting patients’ quality of life and no treatment related mortality, together with the supporting data we generated for the application deserved a detailed review. In addition, six randomized large scale studies have shown that IL-2 alone is not an effective therapy for AML patients. We will meet with the FDA as soon as possible to explore whether a basis exists to resubmit the application without conducting a new clinical trial.”

"Featured Content" profiles are meant to provide awareness of these companies to investors in the small-cap and growth equity community and should not in any way come across as a recommendation to buy, sell or hold these securities. BiomedReports is not paid or compensated by newswires to disseminate or report news and developments about publicly traded companies, but may from time to time receive compensation for advertising, data, analytics and investor relation services from various entities and firms. Full disclosures should be read in the 'About Us Section'.

---

Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites