Tonix Pharmaceuticals announces agreement to acquire infectious disease R&D facility to accelerate development of Vaccines and Antiviral Drugs

By Pavankumar, 9:31am ET-CHATHAM, N.J., July 27, 2021 – Tonix Pharmaceuticals Holding Corp. (Nasdaq: TNXP) (Tonix or the Company), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company, today announced the signing of a Purchase and Sale Agreement to acquire an approximately 48,000 square foot research and development (R&D)facility in Frederick, MD to support Tonix’s expanding infectious disease pipeline, including TNX-1800, a live replicating viral vaccine designed to protect against COVID-19, TNX-801, a live vaccine designed to protect against smallpox and monkeypox, and TNX-3500, a small molecule antiviral to inhibit replication of SARS-CoV-2.Tonix agreed to purchase the R&D facility from Southern Research, a research collaboration partner for TNX-1800 and TNX-801 development. The facility currently operates at biosafety level 2 (BSL-2) containment. Pending transfer and approval of relevant permits, Tonix expects the transaction to close and the facility to be operational in the fourth quarter of 2021. Southern Research plans to consolidate its research activities at its Birmingham, AL campus. Tonix and Southern Research plan to continue those aspects of their collaboration on the development of vaccines and antivirals that are ongoing at the Birmingham, AL campus.“The Fredrick facility will be a major expansion of our R&D capabilities,” stated Seth Lederman, M.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Tonix.“We believe this facility will ensure adequate resources and capacity to support and grow our pipeline of vaccines and antiviral therapeutics. In addition, we view control of in-house facilities as a strategic capability to ensure the speed and efficiency with which we can develop vaccines and antiviral products in the future against known, emerging or novel pathogens.”Dr. Lederman continued, “WhileCOVID-19 has the appearance of being controlled in certain geographic centers, reports of increasing infections in both unvaccinated and vaccinated individuals, primarily related to new variants, have led to new mask mandates and restrictions in parts of the U.S.as well as new lockdowns and other restrictions in Europe and elsewhere. These concerning trends point to an urgent need for more robust vaccine technology and better overall preparedness. The COVID-19 pandemic revealed weaknesses in the U.S. domestic capability to conduct infectious disease R&D and produce vaccines and therapeutics, particularly in the setting of an interrupted global supply chain. We believe our planned capabilities at the Frederick facility will provide greatly needed domestic resources. The facility is ideally located in Maryland’s ’biotech corridor’, which is rich in highly skilled talent, and is also close to the center of the U.S. biodefense research community.”Josh Carpenter, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of Southern Research stated, “We are delighted that Tonix will be acquiring the Frederick research campus. This is another chapter in a robust partnership that will be made even stronger. We have enjoyed partnering with Tonix on TNX-1800 andTNX-801 vaccine projects and look forward to continued collaboration on these projects, as well as TNX-3500 with work performed at our Birmingham campus.”Tonix’s Fredrick R&D facility will complement its Advanced Development Center (ADC) being constructed in New Bedford, MA and the Commercial Manufacturing Center(CMC) that Tonix is planning in Hamilton, MT. The ADC will house laboratories dedicated to process analytical development and pilot manufacturing of its vaccine candidates. The CMC is expected to support commercial scale manufacturing of vaccine products.