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news.Oral antivirals developer Chimerix has acquired a library of chemical lead compounds from the University of Michigan, including an option to all associated intellectual property.
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The library, developed by Dr Leroy Townsend, consists of lead candidates specifically designed toward key antiviral and oncology targets. Chimerix will incorporate promising candidates from the antiviral library into the company's technology platform, which enables the development of drugs with enhanced chemical properties, including oral availability and facilitated delivery into targeted tissues.
Chimerix also intends to license out promising oncology lead candidates to interested pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners.
The library is the result of a lifetime of research into the design, synthesis and development of a broad range of compounds to target antiviral and oncology targets. The majority of Dr Townsend's research efforts focused on antimetabolites, an approach that has been successfully employed in the search for potent antiviral, antibacterial, antiparasitic and anticancer agents.
The acquisition will boost the drug discovery efforts of Chimerix, which is currently focused on applying its technology towards the discovery and development of oral drugs for the treatment of smallpox, cytomegalovirus infection, drug-resistant HIV infection and viral hepatitis.
The biotech company's lead antiviral program, CMX001, for the oral treatment of smallpox and complications from the smallpox vaccine is currently in late-stage preclinical development.