Corcept stakes future on Cushing's orphan drug

A drug with a social stigma — yet one that could transform patients with a disfiguring but little known disease — has tiny Corcept Therapeutics Inc. on the cusp of its first approval instead of on the edge of shutting down.
The 12-year-old Menlo Park company said the Food and Drug Administration accepted its application for Corlux, a treatment for Cushing’s syndrome. The disease often is triggered by steroids that cause the body to build up excessive cortisol, a hormone that influences metabolism.