Chimerix shares soared by more than 69% Wednesday after the Durham-based pharmaceutical company said it would be acquired by Jazz Pharmaceuticals for $8.55 per share in cash, or about $935 million.
Chimerix shares closed Tuesday at $4.96, then opened today at about $8.40. Both companies have approved the transaction, which is expected to close in the second quarter.
The sale follows a winding path for one of North Carolina’s most promising pharma companies. It was formed in 2000 and focused for much of its history as the developer of an antiviral drug based on proprietary lipid technology. It went public for $13 in 2013 and had a market value of $2 billion at its peak two years later.
But the company’s lead drug, brincidofovir, failed in a 2015 study, prompting shares to decline by more than 80%. It has since shifted strategies, culminating in the current transaction.
Now, Chimerix’s lead asset is dordaviprone, a small molecule treatment in development for a rare, high-grade brain tumor that mostly affects children and young adults. Radiation is the most common treatment approach, but Chimerix hopes for accelerated FDA approval for the cancer-fighting drug.
“Adding dordaviprone to our oncology R&D pipeline will further diversify our portfolio with a medicine that addresses a significant unmet need with no other FDA-approved therapies and limited treatment options for this patient population,” Jazz CEO Bruce Cozadd said in a release. “If approved, dordaviprone has the potential to rapidly become a standard of care for a rare oncology disease and also contribute durable revenue beginning in the near-term.”
Dordaviprone could be available to patients by the second half of this year, says Cozadd.
Dublin-based Jazz Pharmaceuticals brings “global scale to broaden our dordaviprone commercial strategy,”said Mike Andriole, CEO of Chimerix.
Chimerix had 72 full-time employees, with 56 engaged in research and development, as of Dec. 31, 2023, according to its annual report. Chimerix shares are up 320% in the past year, after trading between 75 cents and $5.53. It has a market capitalization of $446.2 million.
Jazz Pharmaceuticals has a market cap of about $8.4 billion. It employs about 2,800 people worldwide, with about half working in the U.S. Its U.S. headquarters is in Palo Alto, California.