A ribbon-cutting ceremony today at Tonix Pharmaceuticals marks the opening of a new 48,000 square foot Research and Development Center in Frederick, Md. expected to support the company’s expanding infectious disease pipeline.
The Research and Development Center main building was constructed as a biosafety level (BSL)-3 facility but has been operating at BSL-2. Tonix plans to make appropriate upgrades and seek certification for BSL-3 so that research may be conducted on live SARS-CoV-2- and other pathogens.
U.S. Senator for Maryland Ben Cardin and U. S. Congressman David Trone representing Maryland’s 6th Congressional District, are expected to speak at the event. Also expected to attend the event are Maryland Department of Commerce Secretary Kelly Schulz, Frederick County Executive Jan Gardner, and the Mayor of Frederick, Md., Michael O’Connor. Seth Lederman, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Tonix and Anthony Macaluso, PhD, Executive Vice President, Strategic Development of Tonix will make comments.
The RDC in Frederick, Md. will complement Tonix’s Advanced Development Center (ADC) being constructed in New Bedford, Mass., and its Commercial Manufacturing Center (CMC) planned in Hamilton, Mont. The ADC will house laboratories dedicated to process analytical development and pilot manufacturing of the Company’s vaccine candidates for clinical trials. The CMC is expected to support commercial scale manufacturing of vaccine products.
“We at Tonix are excited to achieve this significant milestone in our efforts toward supporting and growing our pipeline of vaccines and antiviral therapeutics,” stated Dr. Lederman. “We believe that this strategy will enable Tonix to develop vaccines and therapeutics to address the current COVID-19 pandemic, and to be prepared to efficiently combat potential novel or emerging pathogens, termed ‘Disease X’, that could impact society in the future. We believe that the recombinant pox virus platform technology underlying TNX-1800 and TNX-801, coupled with our capabilities at the RDC and our Advanced Development Center (ADC) for manufacturing, will be rapidly deployable for addressing Disease X, with simplified distribution and administration, relative to modified mRNA-based vaccines.”
Adapted from Tonix Pharmaceuticals Holding Corp.
