Company: CRNX
Filing Date: 2025-02-27
Form Type: 10-K
Source: 0000950170-25-029050
Chunk: 118

Company: Crinetics Pharmaceuticals, Inc.
Filing Date: 2025-02-27
Form: 10-K
Item: Item 1
Chunk 118
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cular stress doses of glucocorticoid for acute illness are common. 

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CAH patients have a two-fold risk of bone fractures compared to the general population and commonly suffer from hypercholesterolemia, insulin resistance, and hypertension. Compared to the general population, CAH patients have a diminished life expectancy of 7 years, and more than 20% of CAH patients will die of a condition complicated by adrenal crisis. Therefore, we believe a significant unmet medical need exists for improved agents to treat both Cushing’s disease and CAH. Crinecerfont, an oral corticotropin-releasing factor type 1 receptor (CRF1) antagonist received marketing approval in December 2024 as an adjunctive treatment to glucocorticoid replacement to control androgens in adults and pediatric patients (4yrs of age and older) with classic CAH.

As with acromegaly, first-line therapy for Cushing’s disease is surgery to remove the pituitary tumor if possible. Pharmacological therapy is required when surgery is delayed, contraindicated or unsuccessful. Adrenal enzyme inhibitors (e.g., metyrapone and ketoconazole) prevent the synthesis of cortisol and can improve symptoms but suffer from mechanistic side effects as a result of accumulation of precursor steroids and the resulting lack of negative feedback. For example, metyrapone is associated with hirsutism in women and patients must be monitored carefully to avoid hypoadrenalism. Ketoconazole often requires progressively increasing dosage to maintain disease control, but this is ultimately limited by the hepatotoxicity of the drug. In addition, it is a potent inhibitor of one of the most important drug metabolizing enzymes in the liver, CYP3A4, resulting in the potential for negative drug-interactions as a side effect. Mifepristone, a potent glucocorticoid receptor antagonist, is approved for control of hyperglycemia in Cushing’s syndrome, but is difficult to titrate and has significant liabilities due to its potent anti-progesterone activity. The somatostatin analog, pasireotide, inhibits ACTH secretion, but in a published study, only 15-26% of patients in a Phase 3 trial achieved normalization of urinary free cortisol while 73% of patients experienced a hyperglycemia-related adverse event due to the compound’s potent inhibition of insulin secretion. Osilodrostat, a cortisol synthesis inhibitor, received marketing approval in 2020 in the