A big step forward was taken last week when participants from Tonix Pharmaceuticals, the Ravalli County Economic Development Authority (RCEDA), Ravalli County Government, Rocky Mountain Laboratory (RML) and the general public gathered to witness the signing of a development agreement between the City of Hamilton and Tonix Pharmaceuticals. The agreement marks the beginning of construction on the company’s planned Bio-Safety Level 2 vaccine production facility on Old Corvallis Road.
Although this signature event marked the beginning of a construction period expected to take three years, it also marked the culmination of a combined community effort lasting a lot longer than that and involving the efforts of some real movers and shakers like Senator Max Baucus who was in attendance at the signing ceremony.
Hamilton Mayor Dominic Farrenkopf said, “The way things like this happen is you take some great people from some great organizations, you blend them and get a great project and that’s what we have here…and I’m ready to sign.” He said the city had put a lot of thought into its expansion plans so that others could attract quality infrastructure like this facility. He said it makes the Bitterroot a better place to live and for our kids a place to come back to or to stay. “All the planning that was put into this shows that we are looking at the future and asking how can we do this in an orderly fashion, how can we do this to make sense. So, this project is a perfect example.”
Signing for Tonix was CEO Dr. Seth Lederman. Lederman said the first time he met Senator Baucus was in relation to his company’s work on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in the military.
“I mentioned that we had this infectious disease program,” said Lederman, “and the moment I said that, he said ‘Hamilton, Montana’. In the same sentence, he said Dr. Marshall Bloom [Director of Scientific Research at RML]. Very soon after that we met Julie Foster who has been very important in helping us and moving this on.”
Foster is Executive Director of the Ravalli County Economic Development Authority which played a key role in coordinating the creation of the County’s economic development district and the extension of the City of Hamilton’s water and sewer infrastructure north of town, all of which helped lay the groundwork for the type of public/private cooperation needed to accomplish something like the addition of a new vaccine production facility in the area.
After noting how much was involved in getting to the current agreement, Lederman addressed the future. “Today,” he said, “we are here to celebrate the signing of the development agreement, a big step forward in our goal of having this facility built and I want to thank everyone who has been involved.”
Tonix Pharmaceuticals began as a research and development facility located in Frederick, Maryland and recently opened the doors on a new process development facility located just south of Boston. Lederman said the new facility in Hamilton will be integrated with those. He said that products are invented in Maryland, the processes are worked out in Boston and the new facility in Hamilton will produce them.
“The idea here is that we can supply the world when this is fully realized,” said Lederman. He said Tonix is a relatively small company with 100 employees “but we see ourselves as part of a bigger mission.” Lederman said one of the things they are addressing is that there really is a dearth of domestic manufacturing in the U.S. He said that became very clear during the COVID pandemic.
“When the borders were shut and consequently the supply chains dried up, so many of the things you could do before the pandemic like e-mail China, e-mail India or even try to e-mail Canada, nothing was happening and we realized that it’s a national problem,” said Lederman.
“For too long jobs and manufacturing have been shipped overseas. America invents and we are going to have other people make it for us. But that’s not going to work in the future as we have all seen. In our small way we really see ourselves as part of a great big movement to bring business, especially bio-business, back to the United States.” Lederman said that vaccine research and production was critical to the country’s bio-security and bio-defense. “We are glad to be part of it and glad to be part of what’s going on in the Bitterroot,” he said. “There’s a wonderful emergence of a bio-tech corridor from Missoula to here.”
County Commissioner Dan Huls called it another step in the evolution of the economy here in the Bitterroot Valley. “We started out in the 1880s with timber for the miners in Butte and then dairy came in,” said Huls. “Agriculture always has been a driving force… In 1923, the Cheese factory in Corvallis manufactured more cheese than any other dairy in the entire United States. The sugar beet came after that and the cattle industry. Now we are evolving now into a new era. We are happy to have Tonix.”
Dr. Marshall Bloom, Director of Scientific Research at Rocky Mountain Labs, said, “I think you could sum up the medical issue as ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure’ and nowhere is that dictum more accurate than in the field of infectious diseases. In particular though, with vaccines we might say ‘a milliliter or a cc of prevention is worth a pound of cure’. And we have seen that over and over again over the first 100 years in the form of development of vaccines, many of which were developed in the state of Montana.” He said RML scientists have worked on vaccines against Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, Que Fever, Yellow Fever, Ebola virus, Zinka Virus, SARS Corona type to Covid 19 and Monkey Pox. “So it is with great interest that I and my colleagues welcome another vaccine business to the Bitterroot Valley and I think it fits right in line with what Commissioner Huls said about a new area of growth in our economy, I look forward to Tonix developing their plant here and to perhaps some future collaboration with our lab,” said Bloom.
Tom Korst, Superintendent of Hamilton School District, said that he thought the development would benefit the school district greatly, bringing more job opportunities as well as potential for collaborating with the students.
Bob Whalen, Chairman of the RCEDA Board, said, “Who couldn’t support an industry that is involved in helping with human diseases and relief of suffering.” He welcomed Tonix and told Lederman that he made a good choice in coming to our “diverse community.”
“We have mountain bikers, fishermen, birdwatchers, we support the arts,” aid Whalen.
Senator Max Baucus said, “This is another example of how lucky we are to be Montanans. That’s why this county’s developed so well.”