Tech Giants Fund $500M Push to Prevent the Common Cold

What if you never had to suffer through another cold again?

That's the ambitious goal of Intercept, a new $500 million nonprofit backed by payment giant Stripe, AI companies Anthropic and OpenAI, and philanthropist Bill Gates. The organization plans to use modern technology to prevent respiratory infections that have plagued humanity for millennia.

The average person spends 5% of their entire lifetime fighting colds or the flu. Yet drug companies rarely invest in prevention because more than 200 different viruses cause the common cold, making it financially unattractive to develop vaccines for any single one.

Stripe executive Nan Ransohoff says that's about to change. Working with vaccine designer David Veesler from the University of Washington, Intercept will fund broad countermeasures that work against many viruses at once.

The approach mirrors Stripe's earlier $1.8 billion Frontier program, which tackled climate change by funding carbon removal technology. Both problems are technically solvable but lack commercial incentives for private companies to pursue them.

Scientists now have powerful new tools that didn't exist before, including RNA drugs, antibodies, and computational protein design. One promising idea involves engineering proteins that people could spray in their noses to catch viruses before they cause infection.

Intercept will also invest in large-scale air-cleaning systems for schools, offices, and public spaces. Using strong ultraviolet light to inactivate viruses, these systems would remove pathogens from the air just like water treatment plants remove impurities before water reaches your home.

The Ripple Effect

The team takes inspiration from the rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments. Advisors include Peter Marks, a former top FDA official, and Moncef Slaoui, who led Operation Warp Speed.

While the US government funds about $6.5 billion annually for virus research through NIAID, that budget hasn't grown in recent years. Private philanthropy is filling the gap, with the Collison brothers becoming major supporters of viral research after their successful fast grants program during the pandemic.

Veesler says the diversity of viruses has seemed too daunting for researchers to tackle until now. Modern technology finally makes prevention possible.

The initiative represents a shift from accepting illness as inevitable to actively working to eliminate it. If successful, Intercept could free humanity from infections that have been considered an unchangeable part of life.

Scientists are ready to stop accepting the status quo and try something different.