Chimerix sped out of the IPO gate on Thursday. The Durham, NC-based drug developer’s ($CMRX) stock soared on its first day of trading, with an initial price of $14 per share that shot up 34% to $18.79 per share by the end of the day. The stellar start followed optimism on Wall Street about the biotech’s pipeline of antiviral therapies with big sales potential. As The News & Observer reported, Chimerix raised $102 million in the IPO. The company priced at the middle of its proposed $13-to-$15 range, and showed strong demand for its shares in short order. “This deal had so much demand we ultimately asked the insiders to give up their shares to let others come in,” said Chimerix backer Art Pappas, who is managing partner of Pappas Ventures in Durham, as quoted by the newspaper in Raleigh. “It was oversubscribed at four times what we were trying to raise.”
