A Lyme Disease Drug Plant in Hamilton Brings Bitterroot Tick Research Full Circle
Tonix Pharmaceuticals broke ground Oct. 8 on a phased plant in Hamilton. Its first product would be an antibody meant to block Lyme disease after a tick bite.
In the early 1980s a scientist at Rocky Mountain Laboratories in Hamilton, Willy Burgdorfer, identified the bacterium behind Lyme disease. It still bears his name: Borrelia burgdorferi. Four decades later, a drug company has started building a plant a few miles away whose first job would be making a product meant to stop that same infection.
Tonix Pharmaceuticals broke ground on the north side of Hamilton on Oct. 8, The Montana Statesman reported. CEO Seth Lederman called it a full circle moment at the ceremony, according to Montana Public Radio, given how much Lyme research was done in the valley.
The plant
- Site: 44 acres inside a Targeted Economic Development District, which lets local government use future property-tax growth in the district to pay for infrastructure serving industry (KPAX).
- Size: about 200,000 square feet in stages, starting with a phase of roughly 25,000 square feet, according to Lederman's interview with the Ravalli Republic as summarized by LifeScienceHistory.com.
- Jobs: about 25 at the start, possibly growing to 200.
- Timing: four to five years before products from the site reach the market, Lederman told MTPR. He told NBC Montana the full project needs at least four years to get running.
Former U.S. Sen. Max Baucus, also a former ambassador to China, helped turn the first dirt. Hamilton Mayor Dominic Farrenkopf, Ravalli County Commissioner Dan Huls and University of Montana representatives attended.
The product
The plant's first focus is TNX-4800, which Tonix describes as a long-acting monoclonal antibody built to block transmission of Lyme bacteria. Lederman was clear it is not a vaccine, though he told NBC Montana it fills a similar role by preventing infection. It is still in development and has no FDA approval, which is part of why the timeline is long.
Tonix is based in New Jersey and was founded about 17 years ago. Its work also covers fibromyalgia, depression and infectious disease. Lederman told KPAX the company chose to put roots in the Bitterroot during the COVID-19 pandemic, when many firms wanted more U.S. manufacturing.
Why the valley keeps drawing biotech
Rocky Mountain Laboratories has been in Hamilton since 1928. It grew out of work on Rocky Mountain spotted fever, a tick-borne disease that killed settlers in the early 1900s, and is now a research campus of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. GSK has also run operations in Hamilton for more than 40 years. Locals now call the area north of town a biotech corridor.
Julie Foster of the Ravalli County Economic Development Authority told NBC Montana she had worked with Tonix for nearly six years, and that the jobs could give young people a reason to stay or come home after college.
What is still uncertain
In the near term, residents will see construction traffic. The larger questions sit years out: whether TNX-4800 clears clinical trials and approval, how quickly the plant grows past phase one, and how many jobs go to people already in the valley.
Originally reported by The Montana Statesman. Read the full story: Tonix Pharmaceuticals Breaks Ground in Hamilton, Adding to the Bitterroot's Biotech Corridor.
