Stripe is funding a new nonprofit aimed at cutting transmission of respiratory illnesses such as colds and influenza.

The nonprofit organization, called Intercept, will support projects through grants and investments, MIT Technology Review reported. The nonprofit’s scope includes vaccine work and large-scale air treatment systems for places like schools, workplaces, and other indoor venues.

Other backers include Anthropic, Flu Lab, the OpenAI Foundation, Bill Gates, and several traders affiliated with Jane Street Capital. 

The initiative is being led by Stripe executive Nan Ransohoff alongside Charlie Petty, a venture capitalist who joined Stripe this year. 

"I think we treat respiratory infections as a minor nuisance, but have really underweighted the burden that they impose on society," Ransohoff told the publication.

Ransohoff also said people spend about 5% of their lives dealing with colds or flu. She argued prevention has drawn limited industry focus in part because cold symptoms can be triggered by hundreds of viruses, making single-target vaccines a tough business case.

Stripe has used similar funding models before, including its $1.8 billion Frontier program intended to spur carbon-removal development, in an effort to combat climate change. Ransohoff compared the two efforts as areas she described as "technically possible" while "lacking strong market incentives."

Intercept’s concept developed after Ransohoff began discussions with David Veesler, a University of Washington structural biologist and vaccine designer.

Veesler pointed to newer approaches such as RNA-based medicines, antibody tools, and computational protein design.

Ransohoff said Intercept plans to draw on advisors including Peter Marks, a former senior FDA official, and Moncef Slaoui, who led the U.S. Covid-19 vaccine push known as Operation Warp Speed. 

A central technical hurdle will be building countermeasures that cover many viruses at once, which is part of why the group is also interested in air-cleaning methods such as high-intensity ultraviolet systems.

The group’s goal is to eliminate viruses from the air much like municipal water systems remove contaminants before drinking water reaches homes.

While the U.S. allocates about $6.5 billion annually to virus research through NIAID, the agency’s funding has seen little growth in recent years, creating opportunities for privately funded initiatives to pursue new prevention strategies.

Anthropic and OpenAI have been working to double down on AI healthcare initiatives.

In May, Anthropic partnered with the Gates Foundation to commit $200 million in grant funding, Claude usage credits and technical support for programs in global health, life sciences, education, and economic mobility over the next four years.

Both companies have also launched HIPPA-compliant tools for medical settings such as Anthropic’s Claude for healthcare and OpenAI’s Enterprise Health Suite, which helps aid clinicians with scientific databases to automate medical documentation.

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