Rodman & Renshaw Outperform On EpiCept Corp.

Rodman & Renshaw has an Outperform rating and a $2 price target on shares of EpiCept Corp. EPCT. In a note to clients, Rodman & Renshaw writes, "Investors should be aware that the prior Phase 3 trial (0201 study) evaluating Ceplene and IL-2, upon which last year's NDA submission was based, was compared to standard of care, which meant observation with no active treatment. In this regard, in our prior notes we had expressed concern regarding the FDA approvability of Ceplene given the absence of an IL-2 monotherapy arm. In fact, during the lead-up to the NDA submission last summer, the FDA had requested a meta-analysis of prior IL-2 monotherapy arms versus standard of care from five historical studies in AML remission (see Figure, next page). As evidenced by the Kaplan-Meier curves, the meta-analysis demonstrated that IL-2 was not statistically different from standard of care in leukemia free survival (Blaise et al, CALBG 9720, ALFA 9801, CALBG 19808) or overall survival (CCB 2961)."