There’s a saying in the bio world: what doesn’t kill you, mutates and tries again. We can develop vaccines or other treatments very fast – but some pathogens are capable of mutating to evade those defenses just as quickly.

We see this every year during flu season. Each year, we have to make an educated guess at which versions of the flu will become most rampant, and develop vaccines to combat them. Even then, our vaccines are only 10% effective in some years, and the virus claims an estimated 294,000 and 518,000 deaths each year globally. 

The holy grail here is the “universal vaccine” — a vaccine that’s capable for defending against all variations of the flu. One shot that ends the arms race.

That technology exists today. And it’s why we’re proud to co-lead Centivax’s $10M Seed round with the Global Health Investment Corporation.

Centivax is a platform that allows us to develop universal vaccines by targeting parts of a pathogen that are broadly conserved – in other words, pieces that remain very similar as new variants evolve. That allows us to develop vaccines that work against all current, and potentially, future, strains of that pathogen.

They’re starting with the flu, but can ultimately leverage their platform for much more, like HIV. 

If that alone isn’t enough, here are three more reasons why we invested:

1. The Problem is Huge, and the Market is Everyone

Rarely do we come across a startup that has the potential to save millions of lives, if not more. Centivax is one of those startups. 

Vaccines are our most effective tool in fighting infectious diseases. An estimated 20 million lives were saved globally in the first year since deploying the COVID-19 vaccine, for example. 

Despite these successes, the virus continues to mutate to overcome our vaccine efforts, leading to a game of whack-a-mole where we’re constantly surveilling for new strains, and quickly developing new vaccine formulas to fight them. This same fight is playing out across many infectious diseases including the seasonal flu, HIV, and others.

A universal vaccine has the potential to eradicate these diseases forever. It will save millions of lives, full stop. 

2. An Elegant Bioplatform 

 We love techbio platforms because they simultaneously develop multiple assets, and can pursue a myriad of commercial opportunities. 

Centivax is developing a bioplatform for vaccines. Their platform works by analyzing infectious diseases to identify their key weakness: the part of their genetic sequence that doesn’t change over time. Think of it like the pathogen’s universal calling card. 

Once identified, Centivax can develop a vaccine that teaches the body to spot this calling card forever. No matter how the virus mutates, the body will recognize the disease and arm itself against it. 

This approach has endless potential indications. For example, Centivax is also exploring vaccines for livestock, opportunities with the military to nullify biological threats, and potential anti-venom formulas. 

Many lifesaving treatments from just one platform. That’s the beautify of the bioplatform thesis.

3. The Right People

All of this progress wouldn’t be possible without a founding team that had the experience and ability to execute on this massive mission. 

Centivax has that in CEO and co-founder Dr. Jacob Glanville, one of the world’s leading experts on universal vaccines, and a seasoned entrepreneur. 

Glanville built and sold his first company, Distributed Bio, in 2012 for $104M to Charles River Laboratories. And he has since become an expert in the vaccine space. 

His work on universal vaccines was featured in Netflix’s How to Prevent a Pandemic, where he supported an international research team over 4 years, and managed a team of remarkable scientists from USF, Pfizer, Genentech, and others.

Centivax Founders: Dr. Jacob Glanville (CEO), Nicholas Bayless, Ph.D. (CTO), Stephanie Wisner, MBA (CBO)

He’s also put together a world class team at Centivax. Including: 

• CTO Nicholas Bayless,  PhD, a cellular and molecular immunologist who helped fight the Zika outbreak, and led translational analysis for multiple clinical studies at the Parker Institute for Cancer Immunotherapy.
• CBO Stephanie Wisner, MBA. Wisner is the author of Building Backwards to Biotech,  and has led business strategy at multiple biotech startups. She’s a proven expert in bringing breakthrough technology from the lab to the market. 
• CSO Sawsan Youssef, PhD, who has led three Pfizer programs from discovery to clinic. 
• Chief Government Affairs Officer David Gangemi, PhD, a virologist with over 40 years of experience in government service, spanning roles from Chief Advisor to the Undersecretary for Health Affairs, to Lead Virologist at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Disease. 
• COO David Tsao. Tsao has spent over 15 years in biologics drug development at Pfizer, and worked alongside Glanville at Distributed Bio before joining Centivax. He has deep expertise in IND-enabling studies, safety/toxicology, and manufacturing. 

Centivax’s work has been supported by the world’s leading global health organizations, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Naval Medical Research Center, the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, the Medical Technology Enterprise Consortium, the Department of Defense, the National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals, and others. 

For these reasons and many more, we’re thrilled back Centivax’s mission to accelerate the world’s transition to a post-pathogen humanity.

Learn more at https://www.centivax.com/