Stripe, Anthropic, and OpenAI Back $500 Million Intercept Fund to Eliminate Respiratory Viruses

A coalition of technology companies and philanthropists has launched a $500 million nonprofit fund aimed at making respiratory infections (搜索)搜索该疾病 "a thing of the past." Called Intercept, the initiative was unveiled June 24 and pools resources from payment company Stripe (搜索)搜索该词条, AI firms Anthropic (搜索)搜索该词条 and OpenAI Foundation (搜索)搜索该词条, Flu Lab, Bill Gates, and traders at quantitative investment fund Jane Street Capital, according to an Intercept查看公司主页 spokesperson.

The fund represents one of the largest private philanthropic commitments ever directed at respiratory virus prevention, targeting a disease burden that its backers argue has been systematically underestimated. "I think we treat respiratory infections (搜索)搜索该疾病 as a minor nuisance, but have really underweighted the burden that they impose on society," said Nan Ransohoff, the Stripe (搜索)搜索该词条 executive leading the initiative alongside Charlie Petty, a venture capitalist who joined Stripe this year. On average, people spend 5% of their lifetime fighting a cold or the flu, according to Ransohoff.

The Incentive Problem

Despite respiratory pathogens causing billions of infections annually, pharmaceutical companies have devoted relatively little effort to preventing colds. The central challenge is biological: more than 200 different viruses cause cold-like symptoms, with rhinoviruses being the most common culprits, according to the American Lung Association. "When pharma companies look at it, it's not as attractive as other things they could work on," Ransohoff said. "So it hasn't attracted the resources."

Intercept查看公司主页's strategy is to bridge this gap by "de-risking" early-stage drug candidates. The organization plans to shepherd at least two drugs or treatments through Phase I and Phase II clinical trials, at which point pharmaceutical companies would ideally step in to take them through Phase III and to market. "That is the theory—we will see in practice where we get with that," Ransohoff said.

Samuel Scarpino, director of AI + life sciences at Northeastern University and a professor in the practice of health and computer sciences, who is not involved with Intercept查看公司主页, estimated that Phase I and Phase II clinical trials cost approximately $20 to $30 million per drug, with Phase III trials being even more expensive.

The Scientific Vision

The technical foundation for Intercept查看公司主页 emerged from conversations between Ransohoff and David Veesler, a structural biologist and vaccine designer at the University of Washington. Veesler argued that modern tools make broad-spectrum countermeasures against multiple viruses simultaneously a realistic goal.

"He effectively sort of nerd-sniped me," Ransohoff said of Veesler. "He convinced me that this is technically possible. He also helped me understand that some of the reasons that this hasn't been done before was sort of an incentive problem."

Veesler pointed to a growing toolkit that includes RNA drugs, antibodies, and computational protein design. One concept under consideration involves engineering virus-grabbing proteins that people could spray in their nasal passages to catch viruses before they cause infection. "Most people just accept these viruses as a fact of life, and that got us thinking: Do we have to accept it?" Veesler said. "The more we thought about it, the more we realized that many of these problems have not been worked on with modern technologies."

The project draws inspiration from COVID-19 pandemic response efforts, where Veesler's group contributed to the rapid development of vaccines, antiviral drugs, and antibodies. Intercept查看公司主页's advisors will include Peter Marks, a former top FDA official, and Moncef Slaoui, the pharmaceutical executive who led the US coronavirus vaccine effort, Operation Warp Speed.

Beyond Pharmaceuticals: Cleaning the Air

Intercept查看公司主页's approach extends beyond drug development to include physical interventions. The fund aims to support deployment of air filtration systems and ultraviolet lights that can disinfect air in rooms—technologies for which the evidence base for reducing infection is already strong, but whose adoption has been limited by cost and logistical complexity.

"Part of our initiative is getting corporate partners to agree to [run] pilots and to give us feedback," said Charlie Petty. The group has enlisted Warby Parker, Mastercard, and JP Morgan as part of a "network of future buyers" that have expressed interest in exploring these technologies in the workplace. The conceptual framework treats airborne pathogen removal analogously to how municipalities remove impurities from water supplies before piping it to homes.

A Track Record in Philanthropic Science

The initiative follows Stripe (搜索)搜索该词条's previous $1.8 billion Frontier program, which aimed to encourage carbon removal technology development. Ransohoff drew a parallel between the two efforts, noting that both removing carbon from the atmosphere and eliminating respiratory viruses are "technically possible" but "lack commercial incentives."

Stripe (搜索)搜索该词条 co-founders Patrick and John Collison have become significant philanthropists in viral research. After providing "fast grants" to support labs during the COVID-19 pandemic, they later joined donors committing $650 million to establish the Arc Institute in Palo Alto, California, which develops AI models for biological research.

The US currently funds approximately $6.5 billion annually in virus research through the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), but that agency's budget has not grown in recent years, creating space for private philanthropy to address gaps in the research landscape.

"The diversity of viruses is just too large and seems daunting, so people don't even try," Veesler said. "I'm happy that someone is ready to help scientists, not accepting the status quo, and doing something different."