CORT

Corcept Therapeutics Inc

A California drugmaker that tames the stress hormone cortisol, which the body pumps out in excess in some illnesses. Its best-known medicine, Korlym, treats Cushing's syndrome, a condition where too much cortisol causes high blood sugar and other troubles. Founded in 1998 by two Stanford psychiatrists, the company got its name from a mashup of "cortisol" and "concept." Its founding idea grew out of a Stanford researcher's hunch that the abortion pill mifepristone could also block cortisol's effects — a hunch that later became its flagship drug.