Centivax CEO Jacob Glanville on a universal flu vaccine targeting 80-95% efficacy and a single antivenom for all snakes

Summary

Jacob Glanville, founder and CEO of Centivax and a former Pfizer scientist, has raised nearly $100 million in total to advance two platform technologies: a universal flu vaccine and a single antivenom effective against all venomous snakes. The company has just closed a $45 million Series A, adding to roughly $50 million raised previously, of which half was non-dilutive funding from the Gates Foundation, the U.S. Navy, the Army's Naval Medical Research Command, and BARDA (RareU), alongside venture backing from NFX and the Global Health Investment Corporation. The capital puts Centivax on track to begin first-in-human trials for its flu vaccine within eight months.

Universal Flu Vaccine

The current $7 billion global flu vaccine market is split among four incumbents whose products deliver only 10–60% efficacy, meaning roughly one in three recipients of last season's shot actually benefited. Centivax is targeting 80–95% efficacy by exploiting conserved, mutation-resistant sites on influenza proteins that existing vaccines ignore. Animal data supports an 85–95% efficacy range.

At that protection level, Glanville argues the pandemic model becomes obsolete. A broadly effective, durable flu vaccine would reduce novel strain outbreaks from existential threats to manageable public health reminders, covering variants like H5N1 without emergency mobilization. The incumbent players, he notes, face competitive pressure that could accelerate acquisition or partnership discussions before Centivax reaches later-stage trials.

On funding strategy, Glanville is pursuing accelerated approval pathways to reduce phase trial costs, with a plan to tap large non-dilutive government or institutional checks after Phase 1 data is in hand, potentially covering Phase 2 and Phase 3 before a Series B or C is needed.

Universal Antivenom

The antivenom program originated with Tim Friede, a self-experimenter who spent 18 years injecting himself with escalating doses of snake venom from 16 of the world's deadliest species, accumulating 202 bites and 654 immunizations. Glanville identified Friede as a living source of broadly neutralizing antibodies, initiated a research collaboration, and published results in Cell. The work is currently supported by an NIH award.

The global scale of the problem is significant but underappreciated. Snake envenomation kills approximately 140,000 people annually and causes 300,000–400,000 amputations, concentrated heavily in the developing world. Current treatment requires species-specific antivenoms derived from horse antibodies, which carry serious side-effect risks and require refrigeration, IV administration, and correct snake identification at the point of care.

Centivax's solution targets the conserved toxin sites shared across species, the same biological logic underlying the flu platform. The company has already covered half of the roughly 300 neurotoxic snake species and is working through the remainder. The delivery format is designed as an EpiPen-equivalent: fully human antibodies, lyophilized for ambient storage, mixed and self-administered at the site of a bite without hospital access or species identification. Centivax's goal is distribution into backpacks, village-level first-aid kits, and field environments where the current standard of care is effectively inaccessible.

Funding Philosophy and NIH Exposure

Glanville's prior company, Distributed Bio, was sold to Charles River Laboratories without ever taking venture capital, built instead on profitable service verticals. He views the NIH funding debate with measured nuance: his antivenom program carries NIH support, but he acknowledges the agency's grant review culture has historically been resistant to genuinely novel approaches. He frames some restructuring as potentially constructive if it redirects capital toward emerging platforms rather than incremental iterations of legacy technology. His broader position is that U.S. biotech dominance is a macroeconomic and national security asset that requires sustained public investment to prevent brain drain and cede ground to Chinese competitors.