Stripe, Anthropic and OpenAI back $500m nonprofit to combat respiratory infections

A new nonprofit organisation called Intercept has been launched with a $500 million funding commitment from major technology and investment entities, including Stripe, Anthropic, the OpenAI Foundation, Bill Gates, and traders from the quantitative fund Jane Street Capital. The initiative aims to prevent the common cold and the flu, with a long-term goal of eliminating respiratory viruses altogether. Intercept will utilise grants and investments to support prevention approaches, such as vaccines and large-scale air-cleaning systems for schools, offices, and public spaces.

The project is led by Nan Ransohoff, a Stripe executive, and Charlie Petty, a venture capitalist who recently joined Stripe. Ransohoff noted that while respiratory infections are often treated as minor nuisances, they impose a significant burden on society, with the average person spending five per cent of their lifetime fighting a cold or the flu. Despite this, pharmaceutical companies have historically invested relatively little in cold prevention due to the complexity of the pathogens involved.

The scientific strategy for Intercept is influenced by David Veesler, a structural biologist at the University of Washington, who argued that broad countermeasures against multiple viruses are technically possible using modern tools like RNA drugs, antibodies, and computational protein design. Veesler suggested that engineered virus-grabbing proteins could be sprayed in nasal passages to catch viruses before infection, challenging the notion that these viruses must be accepted as a fact of life.

Intercept’s model draws parallels to Stripe’s previous $1.8 billion Frontier program for carbon removal, citing similar challenges regarding commercial incentives despite technical feasibility. Ransohoff stated that removing carbon from the atmosphere and getting rid of respiratory viruses are both technically possible but lack the commercial drive that typically directs private capital. This private philanthropy emerges against a backdrop of stagnant budgets at the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID), creating space for private sector intervention.

The organisation’s advisory board includes Peter Marks, a former senior FDA official, and Moncef Slaoui, the pharmaceutical executive who led the US coronavirus vaccine effort, Operation Warp Speed. The Collison brothers, co-founders of Stripe, have a history of viral research philanthropy, including fast grants during the pandemic and contributions to the Arc Institute, positioning Intercept as a significant new player in the field of public health innovation.