Chimerix Names Wendy Painter, M.D., M.P.H., as Chief Medical Officer

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., Feb. 4 /PRNewswire/ -- Chimerix, Inc., a biotechnology company developing orally available antiviral therapeutics, announced today that Gwendolyn Powell Painter, M.D., M.P.H., has joined the company as Chief Medical Officer.  

Dr. Painter has more than 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, including work in clinical development, clinical safety and pharmacovigilance, and occupational and environmental medicine.  In her role as Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Painter will be responsible for clinical strategy and development of Chimerix's proprietary antiviral medicines addressing life-threatening diseases.  Dr. Painter has been working with Chimerix since 2002 in a consulting capacity, providing medical oversight and clinical consulting.  

"We are delighted to have Wendy join our leadership team.  Her extensive background in all phases of antiviral drug development has been and will be invaluable as we advance our pipeline through the clinical trials process," said Kenneth I. Moch, Chimerix's Chief Operating Officer.  "Wendy has been a vital force in the development of our broad-spectrum antiviral candidate CMX001."

Dr. Painter has an extensive background in drug development at a number of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies.  Her experience includes having served as Medical Director at GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) where she had responsibility for worldwide antiviral clinical safety.  While there, she was involved in a number of antiviral Investigational New Drug (IND) applications and New Drug Application (NDA) submissions to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.  Subsequently, she provided expert medical consulting to a range of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies regarding drug development.  Dr. Painter earned an M.S. in Organic Chemistry at Emory University and an M.D. degree at the University of Miami School Of Medicine.  She later obtained a Master of Public Health degree in Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and completed a fellowship in occupational medicine at Duke University where she maintains an academic appointment.

About Chimerix

Chimerix, Inc., is developing antiviral therapeutics to treat life-threatening diseases.  Led by a world-class antiviral drug development team, Chimerix is advancing programs to address cytomegalovirus (CMV), BK virus, smallpox, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and influenza.  The company's lead compound, CMX001, is currently in Phase 1 and 2 clinical studies for the treatment of BK virus and CMV, potentially deadly infections among immunocompromised patients.  CMX001 is also being developed as a biodefense countermeasure in the event of a smallpox release.  Chimerix has received financing from leading venture capital firms, including Sanderling Ventures, Canaan Partners, Alta Partners, Asset Management Company and Frazier Healthcare Ventures, in addition to significant funding from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.  Additional information about Chimerix and its antiviral drug development programs may be found online at http://www.chimerix-inc.com.

SOURCE Chimerix, Inc.