Chimerix raises $23M to advance pipeline

Chimerix, a North Carolina, USA-based biotechnology company developing orally available antiviral therapeutics, has made a $23.1 million private placement of its series D preferred stock. New investor, Canaan Partners, led the round, and Seth Rudnick, a general partner with the firm, will join Chimerix' board of directors.

As the firm "transitions from a development-stage to a commercialization-stage company, this financing will be key to providing the resources to advance their commercial programs in a broad range of antiviral diseases including CMV, HPV and HIV," said Tim Wollaeger, managing director of Sanderling Ventures, one of the existing investors, and chairman of Chimerix.

Chimerix' lead program, CMX001, is in Phase I development as an oral treatment for smallpox and cytomegalovirus, the most common viral infection in patients with solid organ transplants. The current financing will augment a $36.1 million grant from the National Institutes of Health awarded to Chimerix for the development of CMX001 for the prophylaxis and treatment of smallpox infection. This financing will also support development of CMX182, an oral prodrug in preclinical development for the treatment of multi-drug resistant HIV infection.