Stripe, Anthropic, and OpenAI are backing a new nonprofit organization, named Intercept, which aims to prevent and eventually eliminate respiratory viruses like the common cold and flu .
The initiative has raised $500 million to fund this effort. Other contributors include the Flu Lab, Bill Gates, and several traders from the investment firm Jane Street Capital.
The Problem They Want to Solve
Respiratory infections are a massive burden on society. The average person spends 5 percent of their lifetime fighting a cold or the flu. These illnesses also cost businesses significantly.
Despite this impact, drug companies invest relatively little in preventing colds. Part of the challenge is the sheer number of viruses involved. More than 200 different viruses cause the common cold, with rhinoviruses being the most common. Creating a vaccine for each one does not make commercial sense for pharmaceutical companies.
Why Tech Companies Are Getting Involved
Intercept is taking a two-pronged approach to the problem. The organisation will provide grants and investments to develop new prevention methods. This includes vaccines, antiviral drugs, and nasal sprays that work against multiple viruses at once.
The second approach focuses on air-cleaning technology. Intercept plans to scale up systems that can remove viruses from the air in public spaces. The goal is to make the air in schools, offices, and other buildings as clean as drinking water. Companies like JP Morgan, Mastercard, and Meta have expressed interest in testing these systems in their workplaces.
The concept for Intercept came from conversations with David Veesler, a structural biologist at the University of Washington. He argued that modern tools make broad countermeasures against many viruses possible.
How the Plan Will Work
Intercept plans to fund promising research through grants. Their goal is to advance at least two drugs or treatments through the first two phases of clinical trials. At that point, large pharmaceutical companies would hopefully step in to fund the final stages and bring them to market.
The organization will also work with corporate partners to test air-cleaning technologies. These companies will run pilots and provide feedback, acting as a network of future buyers.
Expert Perspectives on the Challenge
While the goal is ambitious, experts acknowledge the difficulty. Preventing respiratory pathogens across the entire viral spectrum is a scientifically challenging endeavour.
The $500 million fund is substantial, but clinical trials are expensive. Phase I and Phase II trials can cost $20 to $30 million per drug. Ransohoff acknowledged that the project will likely need more investment. She said they do not expect $500 million to be the total amount required, but it represents their contribution to the effort.
A Growing Trend in Tech Philanthropy
Intercept follows a similar model to Frontier, a $1.8 billion program Stripe previously organized to encourage carbon removal technology. In both cases, Stripe is addressing problems that are “technically possible” but lack commercial incentives.
The Collison brothers, who founded Stripe, have become known for their viral research philanthropy. After providing fast grants to labs during the COVID-19 pandemic, they later contributed to a $650 million commitment to establish the Arc Institute. The Arc Institute has developed AI models for biological research.
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