Chimerix, the Durham-based drug company working on experimental medicine that could save the life of a seven-year-old Virginia child, was granted approval by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to administer the drug to the boy, the company said Tuesday evening.

Seven-year-old Josh Hardy is in the intensive care unit at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., where relatives say he’s trying to fight off a virus contracted while undergoing cancer treatment.

Josh’s mother, Aimee, has asked the company for a “compassionate dose” of brincidofovir, but the company originally denied the request because doing so could slow down the process of getting the drug to the market, they said.

“Being unable to fulfill requests for compassionate use is excruciating, and not a decision any one of us ever wants to have to make,” said Kenneth Moch, president and CEO of Chimerix, in a statement. “It is essential that each individual in a health crisis be treated with equal gravity and value, a principle we have upheld by pursuing further clinical study of brincidofovir that will inform its use in adenovirus and other serious DNA viral infections.”

Brincidofovir has “the potential to become the first broad-spectrum antiviral for the prevention and treatment of clinically significant infections and diseases caused by DNA viruses,” the company said.

Josh will become the first patient in a pilot trial of the medicine, which will start Wednesday.

The FDA allows someone with an immediate life-threatening illness to ask for permission to use experimental drugs that have not yet received the agency’s approval. Last year, the FDA approved 974 such requests, according to CNN.

“Our son will die without this drug,” Josh’s father, Todd, told CNN. “We’re begging them to give it to us.”

Josh’s request has become a national story in the media and online. A Facebook page dedicated to his request has over 21,000 likes.

“Thank you to every member of Josh’s Army,” read a post Tuesday night. “The world has heard you and because of you Josh and many others will have the opportunity to receive CMX001 (Brincidofovir) the life saving antiviral drug made by Chimerix.”

The post had over 1,000 likes about 22 minutes after it was posted.