By Michael Howell
Back in February of 2015, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world and one of Ravalli County’s largest employers, announced consolidation of its research development operations, resulting in the closure of its research and development operations in Hamilton later that year.
That announcement did not come as a surprise to the scientists and other employees working at the facility, according to former GSK scientist Jay Evans, now CEO of Inimmune Corporation, a brand new bio-tech company in Missoula. Evans said that GSK shared the news with its research team about a year before making the public announcement and was very helpful as the group tried to put some plan together that would not only keep the research team intact, but keep it working in Montana.
“We needed to find the necessary laboratory space and infrastructure capable of supporting a large multidisciplinary research program,” said Evans.
That’s when the University of Montana entered the picture.
“GSK gave us the green light to enter discussions with the University of Montana,” said Evans.
He said it took over a year to work things out.
According to Scott Whittenburg, vice president for research and creative scholarship at UM, seeing the potential connections between the university’s research mission and its available resources for technology transfer and entrepreneurship, officials began exploring possibilities with the research team. What emerged was a strong public/private partnership, resulting in the transfer of over $20 million in National Institutes of Health research contracts and equipment to the university, the hiring of 15 of the former GSK employees by the university, including five as Associate Research Professors, and the establishment of a new bio-tech firm, Inimmune Corp., which will work in partnership with the university in “translating” new research results into usable products.
“Universities play a key role in the development of new technology and bringing it to the marketplace,” said Whittenburg. He said the university is positioned to surpass last year’s unprecedented record of $87 million in external research funding.
Gov. Steve Bullock met last week with the scientists at Inimmune to discuss the potential impacts for the state’s economy that these kinds of public/private partnerships engender. The meeting was held at the Montana Technology Enterprise Center (MonTEC), UM’s business and technology incubator, where the company is currently located.
“As Montana’s economy grows and diversifies, getting research breakthroughs to market quickly propels new innovations, new businesses and more technical, high-paying jobs for Montana,” Bullock said.
There are many benefits to come from this new partnership. Among them, UM has proposed a new Center for Translational Medicine, with this highly experienced team of researchers at the core, which will assist UM faculty in translating research ideas from the laboratory to practical applications. Evans will direct the new center and seek to expand opportunities for biotechnology partnerships at UM and prepare students for careers in the biotech industry.
Evans said, “Inimmune is uniquely positioned to expand into a growing immunotherapy sector by harnessing the immune system to treat diseases with a high unmet medical need.” The company is focused on the discovery and development of new immunomodulatory therapeutics for treatment of allergic diseases, upper respiratory tract infection, and topical treatment of skin diseases and cancer targeted through innate immune receptor activation or inhibition. It provides fee-based contract services to both academic and pharmaceutical industry partners in support of ongoing research and manufacturing operations, its areas of expertise being drug formulation, analytical chemistry, immunology and chemical synthesis.
If you talk to the scientists on the research team what you find is that the transition from GSK to Inimmune has taken some of them back to their roots.
Craig Johnson was born in Hamilton and 20 years ago began working at a small bio-tech lab on the edge of town called Ribi Immunochem. He worked there as it grew into the sprawling modern facility owned by Corixa and he worked there after it was purchased by GSK. He said the recent transition has brought him full circle. He’s gone from working in a small bio-tech company to working for a global corporation, back to working for a small bio-tech company. He finds the turn of events inspiring.
“I can go next door and see what they are doing with my results,” said Johnson. Not only that, but he also knows who is doing it. It is someone he has worked with for a long time, someone he can trust. He said being in touch with the whole process and seeing what becomes of your work in other hands which leads to some useful product is fulfilling and gives a sense of significance to what you are doing.
“It’s exciting. It gets your blood flowing,” he said. “You can lose that connection in a big corporation.”
Another team member, Van Cybulski, echoed Johnson’s remarks. Cybulski was originally from Chicago, but decided he wanted to work in a small, more intimate, laboratory and chose to come out to Montana and work at Ribi. Like Johnson, he saw it turn into a big company and then into a global company. He, too, has come full circle.
Kendal Ryter, Inimmune Vice-President and Director of Manufacturing and Development, said that it was such a small company that everybody has to wear a lot of hats and that kept things interesting. He said his hats ranged from board member, to vice-president, to quality assurance manager.
“We mop our floors,” piped in Cybulski.
Ryter said the team’s work at GSK was narrowly focused and product oriented, compared to what they are doing in partnership with the university. At Inimmune, there is room for a lot more exploration and research without a particular product or drug driving it.
Cybulski agreed, saying he found the academic environment very stimulating.
Johnson said that the whole thing has meant a lot of hard work for everyone but the whole team was feeling energized.
“We’re branching out a bit and going back to our old ways,” said Johnson. “It gets your juices flowing.”
According to Ryter, the university’s Health Sciences building is currently being remodeled to accommodate the new research center on campus.