Immune Pharmaceuticals and EpiCept announce merger agreement

A new combined company will be formed from the merger of Immune Pharmaceuticals and EpiCept Corporation.

Israeli company Immune Pharmaceuticals and EpiCept Corporation have entered into a definitive merger agreement.

The combined company will be known as Immune Pharmaceuticals and will focus on the development of antibody therapeutics and other targeted drugs in the fields of inflammatory disease and cancer.

Expected to close during the first quarter of 2013, the transaction will result in Immune shareholders receiving approximately 77.5 per cent ownership of the combined company, with EpiCept shareholders retaining the remainder.

Dr Daniel Teper, who will be chairman and chief executive officer of Immune Pharmaceuticals, issued a joint statement with Robert Cook, interim president and chief executive officer of EpiCept.

They said: "This transaction will create a publicly traded specialty biopharmaceutical company with a portfolio of four clinical-stage drug candidates for the treatment of inflammatory diseases and cancer."

The companies' joint oncology portfolio will consist of Immune's NanomAbs and EpiCept's vascular disruptive agents, while other clinical-stage products include Immune's bertilimumab for multiple severe disease indications and EpiCept's Amiket, which has shown promise for the treatment of chemotherapy-induced neuropathic pain and post-herpetic neuralgia.