What Happened?
Shares of biopharma company Corcept Therapeutics (NASDAQ: CORT) fell 4.7% in the afternoon session after investor anxiety mounted ahead of a key U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decision for its drug candidate, relacorilant.
The drug was under review, with a target decision date of December 30, 2025. An unfavorable outcome would have posed a significant risk to Corcept's valuation because the company had no other drugs expected to reach approval in the near future. The application for relacorilant was supported by data from two late-stage trials. While one trial, known as GRACE, met its primary goal, the other trial, GRADIENT, did not. The failure of the GRADIENT trial raised the risk that the FDA could issue a Complete Response Letter, effectively rejecting the application.
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What Is The Market Telling Us
Corcept’s shares are very volatile and have had 24 moves greater than 5% over the last year. In that context, today’s move indicates the market considers this news meaningful but not something that would fundamentally change its perception of the business.
The previous big move we wrote about was 7 days ago when the stock dropped 9.2% on the news that investment bank UBS initiated coverage of the company with a Neutral rating.
The bank's analyst noted the stock's strong 75% year-to-date performance as a reason for the neutral stance, suggesting the current price already accounted for future growth. More importantly, UBS projected 2030 sales of $2.1 billion, which fell below the wider consensus estimate of $2.9 billion, signaling potential headwinds for growth.
Adding to the sentiment, Wolfe Research also began its coverage with a similar "Peerperform" rating. The new, less optimistic forecasts from analysts appeared to prompt a reevaluation of the stock by investors.
Corcept is up 63.8% since the beginning of the year, but at $81.86 per share, it is still trading 28.3% below its 52-week high of $114.22 from March 2025. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Corcept’s shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $2,998.
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