Corcept’s Ovarian Cancer Drug Cuts Disease Progression in Study, Shares Jump

(Reuters) -Corcept Therapeutics said on Monday its experimental drug in combination with chemotherapy helped delay progression of a type of ovarian cancer in a late-stage trial.

Shares of Corcept surged about 84% to a record high of $100.29, on track to add about $4.82 billion to the company’s market capitalization, if gains hold.

The drug, relacorilant, in combination with chemotherapy, reduced the risk of cancer progression by 30% in ovarian cancer patients who were resistant to platinum-based chemotherapy treatments, compared with those on chemotherapy alone, meeting one of the main goals of the study, Corcept said.

In the trial that enrolled 381 patients, those who received the drug combination lived one month longer without their disease worsening, compared with those who received chemotherapy alone.

The drug combination also showed significant improvement in overall survival, the second main goal, with patients on the treatment living for an average of 16 months, compared with 11.5 months for those on chemotherapy alone.

Overall survival indicates the period of time patients lived after their diagnosis or the start of the treatment.

The drug was well-tolerated with no new safety concerns, Corcept said, adding that it planned to present full study results in the coming months and file a marketing application in the U.S. in the third quarter of this year.

The success of the trial will significantly build on Corcept’s cortisol-modulating platform and commercial success, if approved, Canaccord Genuity analyst Edward Nash said.

Nash estimates peak sales of $1.3 billion for relacorilant in platinum-resistant ovarian cancer by 2036.

Relacorilant, an oral therapy, works by blocking cortisol, a stress hormone, which helps tumors resist chemotherapy, according to the company.

Current treatment options for platinum-resistant ovarian cancer include AbbVie’s Elahere and Roche’s Avastin.

Ovarian cancer affects an estimated 238,484 women in the U.S. each year, and about 20,000 of these cases annually are classified as platinum-resistant, according to the National Cancer Institute

(Reporting by Kamal Choudhury, Padmanabhan Ananthan and Mariam Sunny in Bengaluru; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Anil D’Silva)