On Oct. 9, 2026, current and former local and statewide officials joined staff from the pharmaceuticals company Tonix to celebrate the company’s groundbreaking ceremony in Hamilton, Montana.

Max Baucus, former U.S. senator and ambassador to China, dug a shovel that featured the engraving “Tonix Pharmaceuticals, Hamilton, MT 2026″ into a pile of dirt alongside Tonix Pharmaceuticals CEO Seth Lederman to mark the beginning of construction for the new facility.

Glaxosmithkline, or GSK, has operated in Hamilton for more than 40 years. Rocky Mountain Laboratories, which is operated by the National Institutes of Health, has helped attract world-class scientists to the area since its founding in 1928.

Lederman told the Ravalli Republic the facility will be built in stages, but will in total span some 200,000 square feet. He said the first phase of the project will cover about 25,000 square feet of the project. The company already owns a 48,000-square-foot research and development center in Frederick, Maryland, which at full capacity employs 80 to 100 people, its website says.

One of the products Lederman said he hopes the company will produce in the Hamilton facility is a medication to protect against Lyme disease, which they currently call TNX 4800.