MAXIM PHARMACEUTICALS RECEIVES RECOMMENDATION FROM ISS IN FAVOR OF PROPOSED MERGER WITH EPICEPT CORPORATION

Maxim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAXM)(SSE:MAXM) announced today that the Institutional Shareholder Services, or ISS, has recommended that Maxim's stockholders vote in favor of the proposal to approve and adopt the merger agreement and the merger with EpiCept Corporation. ISS is a leading provider of proxy voting and corporate governance services to institutional investors, analyzing proxies and issuing informed research and objective vote recommendations for more than 33,000 companies across 115 markets worldwide.

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