korlym
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Corcept Therapeutics
Corcept Therapeutics is a commercial-stage pharmaceutical company that discovers and develops medicines that treat severe endocrinologic, oncologic, metabolic and neurologic disorders by modulating the effects of cortisol, the body's primary stress hormone. Founded in 1998 and based in Redwood City, California, Corcept built its business on Korlym, the first FDA-approved treatment for hypercortisolism (Cushing's syndrome), and has since discovered more than 1,000 proprietary selective cortisol modulators. In 2026 it won FDA approval for Lifyorli (relacorilant) in platinum-resistant ovarian cancer, extending a single scientific idea - blocking cortisol at the glucocorticoid receptor - from a rare endocrine disease into oncology.
Joe Belanoff
Joe Belanoff is the co-founder and CEO of Corcept Therapeutics, a Redwood City-based biopharmaceutical company he has led since 1999. A physician-scientist trained at Amherst College, Columbia University, and Stanford, Belanoff pivoted from academia to entrepreneurship after co-developing intellectual property on cortisol modulation with Stanford psychiatry chair Alan Schatzberg. Under his leadership, Corcept achieved two landmark FDA approvals: Korlym in 2012 for Cushing's syndrome and Lifyorli in 2026 for platinum-resistant ovarian cancer - the first selective glucocorticoid receptor antagonist ever approved. He maintains an adjunct professorship at Stanford while steering a company with over $760 million in annual revenue and more than 30 ongoing clinical studies.