Chimerix, a biotech company developing a variety of drugs, has closed on $11 million in new financing.
Frazier Healthcare Ventures led the round as a new investor.
Sanderling Ventures and Asset Management Company also participated. They invested $3 million in Chimerix in 2003.
The company said the funds would be used to expand drug development efforts and use of proprietary technology. Its lead candidate is an antiviral treatment for smallpox.
“Chimerix has a proven platform that corrects undesirable absorption, distribution, metabolism and elimination properties of drug candidates for viral diseases,” said Robert Overell, a general partner at Frazier Healthcare, who will join the Chimerix board. “Chimerix’s technology addresses this critical problem in drug development and has led to the successful creation of a therapeutic portfolio of preclinical compounds to treat a variety of human diseases, including smallpox.”
Chimerix has also received $36 million from the National Institutes of Health for the smallpox drug candidate called CMX001.
Other targets include HIV and hepatitis.
“This financing provides resources for the company to advance our current therapeutic programs and to broaden the application of our proprietary technology to new commercially attractive therapeutic indications,” said George Painter, CEO of Chimerix, in a statement. “The funds will allow Chimerix to acquire additional developmental resources as we advance CMX001, our lead antiviral agent for treatment of smallpox infection, toward clinical trials
Chimerix has an office in San Diego. It employs 20 people. The company was launched in 2002.
