What You Should Know:
– Centivax, a biotech company developing durable, universal vaccines, today announced the close of a $45 million Series A led by Steve Jurvetson’s Future Ventures, with participation from NFX, BOLD Capital, Base4, Kendall Capital Partners, Amplify Bio, and existing investors.
– The new funding will advance Centivax’s lead universal flu vaccine candidate through CMC development and into a Phase I trial within eight months.
Centivax Accelerates Universal Vaccine Development with Broad-Spectrum Pipeline and Strategic Backing
Centivax is pioneering a new frontier in immunology through a proprietary computational immune-engineering platform designed to create universal vaccines and therapies that provide durable protection across entire categories of fast-evolving threats. Based in South San Francisco, the company is advancing a versatile pipeline that spans infectious diseases, oncology, and chronic health conditions—positioning itself at the intersection of bioengineering innovation and unmet global health needs.
At the forefront of this effort is Centivax’s lead clinical candidate for influenza, targeting a global flu market valued at over $7 billion. The candidate will undergo clinical testing using the gold-standard hemagglutination-inhibition (HAI) assay, directly comparing its ability to protect against over 20 influenza strains—including seasonal, mismatched, and pandemic variants—with that of conventional flu vaccines. Preclinical studies, including work in human organoids and animal models, have demonstrated cross-strain protection, notably against high-concern threats such as H5N1 avian influenza.
What distinguishes Centivax is the broad adaptability of its epitope-focusing technology. Originally designed to overcome antigenic drift and escape in viral pathogens, the platform has proven extensible across a range of targets, including RSV/hMPV, herpesviruses, HIV, and malaria. It is now being leveraged to explore solutions in oncology, autoimmunity, neurodegeneration, cardiovascular disease, and even universal antivenoms—underscoring its potential to reshape how medicine responds to both infectious and non-infectious disease burdens.
“This financing positions us to help the U.S. government meet its goal of a universal flu vaccine within five years,” said CEO Dr. Jacob Glanville. “Our platform’s versatility enables us to tackle a spectrum of rapidly mutating targets, from viruses to venom toxins.”
The leadership team combines deep scientific expertise with proven execution in biotechnology. Dr. Glanville, who previously founded Distributed Bio and led over 75 discovery programs in collaboration with major pharmaceutical partners such as Pfizer, Gilead, and Teva, continues to steer Centivax’s scientific vision. Supporting him are key figures such as Dr. Jerald Sadoff, Chief Medical Officer, who has played a pivotal role in the clinical development and approval of 14 vaccines—including Gardasil, Rotateq, and J&J’s COVID-19 vaccine Jcovden—across tenures at Merck, Johnson & Johnson, and Crucell.
Chief Scientific Officer and co-founder Dr. Sawsan Youssef, whose immunotherapy work at Pfizer contributed to the development of sasanlimab, brings extensive experience in translational science. Stephanie Wisner, co-founder and Chief Business Officer, brings a strategic lens from her time at ARCH Venture Partners and is the author of Building Backwards to Biotech. They are joined by Chief Innovation Officer Gus Zeiner, Chief Operations Officer David Tsao, and Chief Technology Officer Nicholas Bayless.
Centivax’s growth has been propelled not only by venture capital but also by over $24 million in competitive, non-dilutive funding. The company’s initial $2 million award came through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s “Grand Challenge: End the Pandemic Threat,” followed by significant support from CEPI, the NIH, the Military Infectious Diseases Research Program, and the U.S. Naval Medical Research Command, among others.
With a differentiated platform, cross-functional expertise, and validation from global scientific and funding institutions, Centivax is positioning itself as a leading force in the pursuit of universal protection against humanity’s most complex immunological threats.
