Ovarian cancer data restores faith in Corcept's relacorilant

After Corcept Therapeutics setback with relacorilant in Cushing syndrome last month, the company has bounced back with strong data in ovarian cancer, firming its share price.

Corcept's stock fell sharply at the end of 2025 when the FDA turned down its marketing application for glucocorticoid receptor (GR) antagonist relacorilant (CORT-125134) for patients with hypertension secondary to Cushing syndrome (hypercortisolism).

The company has adopted a twin development strategy for the drug, however, and is also running a parallel development programme in platinum-resistant ovarian cancer that has earned it a place on Clarivate's Drugs to Watch in 2026 listing.

Last year, it filed for approval in that indication based on progression-free survival (PFS) data from the 381-subject ROSELLA study. Now, it has overall survival (OS) data to back up that result, building the case for relacorilant in ovarian cancer ahead of an FDA decision that has an action date of 11th July. The drug is also under review in Europe.

The OS results show that patients treated with relacorilant plus nab-paclitaxel experienced a 35% reduction in the risk of death compared to patients treated with nab-paclitaxel alone, with a median OS of 16.0 and 11.9 months, respectively. The drug was also well-tolerated, according to Corcept, with side effects similar between the two study arms.

"The addition of relacorilant to nab-paclitaxel, a trusted and effective chemotherapy, is positioned to become a new standard-of-care treatment for patients with platinum-resistant ovarian cancer," commented Alexander Olawaiye, principal investigator for ROSELLA, who is based at Magee-Women’s Hospital of the University of Pittsburgh in the US.

He also said the strong results "compel us to evaluate relacorilant as a treatment for earlier stages of ovarian cancer and for other tumours that express the glucocorticoid receptor, such as endometrial and cervical cancer." Tumours that express the receptor tend to become resistant to chemotherapy.

Along with its ovarian cancer programme, Corcept is already running trials of relacorilant in endometrial, cervical, pancreatic, and prostate cancers, and its novel mechanism of action sets it apart from existing treatments, according to Clarivate, which noted it offers a biomarker-agnostic alternative for ovarian cancer for patients who aren’t eligible for targeted therapies.

Shares in Corcept, which were trading well above $80, but lost more than half their value after the FDA rejection in Cushing syndrome, regained some of their value, with a 14% rise to $41.30 after the OS data was revealed.