Pioneering vaccine tech could pave the way for all-in-one shots against rapidly mutating viruses

OSLO/ SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, US, 2 APRIL 2025—The hunt for a single-shot vaccine capable of providing protection against multiple deadly viruses and their variants is progressing, with a new cash injection from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI).

The global vaccine research funder will award up to US $5 million to progress a pioneering pan-influenza clinical candidate developed by US-based start-up Centivax into human trials. 

The new project could help validate the potential to use the platform technology to protect against multiple strains of rapidly evolving viruses, like influenza, COVID-19 and HIV. This includes both currently circulating strains as well as variants that we do not yet know about but could strike in the future. 

“While vaccines are incredibly successful in protecting against slowly mutating viruses, such as Polio and Tetanus, for fast-evolving pathogens—which may have pandemic potential—we have often found ourselves in a vulnerable, real-life game of ‘whack-a-mole’, constantly playing catch-up knocking back the newly emerging variants” says Dr Kent Kester, Executive Director of Vaccine Research and Development at CEPI. 

“This approach is cumbersome and costly. Outdated tools that cannot keep up with viral mutations prolong pandemics and increase the burden on health systems, resulting in more lives lost and humanitarian and economic suffering.”

Unlike many of the approaches used for example to develop influenza or COVID-19 vaccines, where researchers target spike proteins on the surface of the currently circulating variant—an exposed part of the virus vulnerable to significant mutations—Centivax uses ‘epitope focussing’ as a method to elicit broad immunity. The technique uses computational immunology to focus immune responses against the “Achilles’ Heel” sites of the virus that do not change easily, thereby generating an immune response that continues to provide protection while other regions of the virus mutate. 

CEPI’s new funding will specifically support safety and toxicity studies on Centivax’s pan-influenza mRNA vaccine candidate, Centi-flu, and manufacturing of clinical trial materials in preparation for a Phase I study due to launch later this year*. Influenza is one of the most genetically diverse viruses on the planet, making it a strong choice for providing proof-of-concept of the ‘epitope focussing’ approach to create broad-spectrum vaccines.

The planned trial follows positive preclinical studies that found Centi-Flu produced broad immunity that spans over a century’s worth of influenza strains, dating back to the 1918 pandemic flu. This includes the currently circulating H5N1 strain with pandemic potential as well as large panels of other variants not included in the vaccine itself.

If successful in human trials, the platform technology could be taken one step further to create vaccines targeting a whole spectrum of pathogens within a given high-risk viral family prioritised by CEPI, including both known threats as well as a novel or as-yet-identified ‘Disease X’.

For example, in the future, experts could look to create a broadly protective shot designed to target conserved parts found across a subset of Filoviruses, a family of viruses that includes the deadly haemorrhagic fever viruses Ebola and Marburg. The vaccine could then replace individual vaccines, currently licensed or in development, to be used as part of a ‘one and done’ preventive campaign in regions where different Filoviruses emerge. 

“In theory, such a tool would become an essential weapon when battling new outbreaks” says Dr Kent Kester. “If a broad-spectrum vaccine protects against, say, multiple Filoviruses or Coronaviruses, then it shouldn't matter which virus from that family emerges next. In fact, investments in tools like Centivax’s tech could lead to a paradigm shift where new vaccine designs future-proof us against viruses before they have even hit.”

“We are proud to partner with CEPI to advance broad-spectrum vaccines against rapidly mutating pathogens,” says Dr. Jacob Glanville, Centivax CEO. “Influenza continues to claim lives, with nations recently experiencing the worst flu season in a decade. For over 80 years, we’ve been redesigning vaccines to keep pace with ever-evolving flu strains. Despite this, there have been five influenza pandemics in the last century, and an H5N1 pandemic potentially looming. Broad-spectrum vaccines offer a path to ending the pandemic era- not only for influenza, but for a wide range of rapidly evolving infectious diseases. This partnership accelerates our platform and gives us the opportunity to collaborate with CEPI’s world-class experts toward a shared goal: preventing the pandemics of the future.”

This is the latest award to be made as part of CEPI’s call for vaccine R&D and manufacturing innovations which could be critical to helping the world better prepare for future epidemics and pandemics, in support of the 100 Days Mission.

CEPI and Centivax are committed to achieving equitable access to the outputs of this project, in line with CEPI’s Equitable Access Policy. Should the project be successful, CEPI has the option to explore providing further funding to Centivax to assess the technology against other infectious diseases of interest to CEPI or for use with other vaccine technologies. Project results, including related data, will be published open access for the benefit of the global scientific community. 

*CEPI’s investment will also fund Centi-flu’s ‘Investigational New Drug’ application, a requirement ahead of testing the vaccine in people in the US. 

About CEPI 

CEPI is an innovative partnership between public, private, philanthropic and civil organisations. Its mission is to accelerate the development of vaccines and other biologic countermeasures against epidemic and pandemic threats so they can be accessible to all people in need. CEPI has supported the development of more than 50 vaccine candidates or platform technologies against multiple known high-risk pathogens or a future Disease X. Central to CEPI’s pandemic-beating five-year plan for 2022-2026 is the ‘100 Days Mission’ to compress the time taken to develop safe, effective, globally accessible vaccines against new threats to just 100 days.

About Centivax

Centivax has developed a universal immunity platform technology. The Centivax platform focuses antibodies and cellular immunity against conserved sites of otherwise highly diverse pathogens. Centivax’s pan-influenza lead clinical candidate is currently in GMP manufacture in preparation for human trials, with multiple follow-on broad-spectrum vaccines and antibody therapies in development. Centivax has been supported by the US Navy (NMRC), US Army (WRAIR), DOD, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, NIH, NIIMBL, GHIC, NFX, BlueKnight, and others. Centivax is founded and led by CEO Dr. Jacob Glanville (previously co-founder and CEO of Distributed Bio, Pfizer, and featured in “Pandemic: How to Prevent an Outbreak”), CMO Dr. Jerald Sadoff (who led clinical approval of Gardasil, Jcovden, Pedvax, Zostavax, Rotateq, ProQuad, VAQTA, Dukoral, Zabdeno, Hexavac, Malara RTS,S/AS01, and others, at Merck, J&J, WRAIR, and CEO of AREAS Global TB Vaccine Foundation), CBO Stephanie Wisner (ARCH Ventures; author of “Building Backwards to Biotech”), CSO Dr. Sawsan Youssef (Pfizer; Distributed Bio; lead for the Pfizer’s eponymous anti-PD1 sasanlimab), and other field leaders in translational computational immune engineering technologies.