Durham-based drug developer BioCryst Pharmaceuticals will buy Presidio Pharmaceuticals, a West Coast company, in a $101 million stock deal, the companies said today.

Neither drug developer has a product out on the U.S. market today but both cited the potential synergies of combining their experimental hepatitis C antiviral drugs as well as partnering with oral antivirals made by competitors.

The deal is subject to regulatory review and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2013. The companies will combine under a new corporate name and remain headquartered in Durham, with operations in Birmingham, Alabama, and in San Francisco.

BioCryst is developing drugs to treat gout, influenza and hepatitis C. Its flu treatment, peramivir, was approved in Japan and Korea in 2010. Presidio specializes in developing antiviral treatments for hepatitis C.
 

Chimerix, a Durham biopharmaceutical company, said Tuesday it raised $16.1 million to continue testing antiviral drugs for treating smallpox.

The latest round of financing brings the seven-year-old company’s total haul to $56 million, but Chimerix is still at least several years away from having a commercial product, said chief operating officer Kenneth Moch.