Around $5m will be financed to Chimerix to initiate animal studies using the drug candidate over a period of 12 months to obtain clearance under the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) Animal Efficacy Rule.
Extension of the development contract stems from a previous Advanced Research and Development Contract awarded by BARDA in February 2011.
The company was tasked to develop CMX001 as a medical countermeasure against smallpox, which could be triggered during a bioterrorist attack.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has designated smallpox as a Category A bioterror agent.
Chimerix president and CEO Kenneth Moch said that CMX001 continues to show progress as a potential medical countermeasure against smallpox, including recent data generated in a highly relevant rabbitpox model.
"Simultaneously, we are also continuing the development of CMX001 for the prevention, preemption or treatment of other dsDNA viruses, including herpesviruses, polyomaviruses, and adenoviruses, that cause morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised individuals," Moch added.
CMX001 has already proved its efficacy against viruses in the poxvirus family, and is currently under development as a potential treatment for all five families of double-stranded DNA (dsDNA) viruses.