Centivax, Inc. is developing an optimized antibody therapeutic to treat as well as protect against COVID-19. With support from the U.S. Army Medical Research and Development Command’s (USAMRDC’s) Military Infectious Disease Research Program (MIDRP) and MTEC, Centivax was able to successfully engineer a potent therapeutic antibody in less than 9 weeks, as well as conduct the relevant animal and toxicology studies.
In addition to being engineered for high affinity and potent neutralization, the antibody has been engineered for optimal therapeutic properties. These properties include prevention against antibody-dependent enhancement, enhanced potency, thermostability, bioavailability, extended half-life, and enhanced safety. Centivax anticipates that the antibody will be delivered intravenously as well as subcutaneously, and will be useful in both hospital and non-hospital settings. This would address the military need for a field-deployable treatment for COVID-19.
Centivax has completed in vitro, in vivo, and regulatory toxicology studies. Centivax is currently in manufacturing, and is preparing to begin clinical trials in 2021.
This project was funded through MTEC’s Military Infectious Disease – Prototype Innovation Program Request for Project Proposals (Solicitation #MTEC-19-10-MID-PIP).
About Centivax
Centivax is a therapeutics company founded to treat, cure and eradicate complex pathogens of the 21st century. This goal is executed by combining computationally-guided therapeutic engineering to efficiently make break-through medicines, with a unique business strategy to make sure that we have the freedom to pursue medicines that matter and sell those medicines at a price that the world can afford. Centivax is spun out of a series of internally incubated technology projects run at Distributed Bio. These technologies were made possible by the emerging field of computational immunology and developed by pioneers of that field over the course of 8 years at Distributed Bio. From our unique vantage point as the creators of these technologies, we were able to see that the true consequence of computational immunoengineering went far beyond disrupting the biologics discovery services market, and had broken open pathways to victory against many of the major outstanding druggability challenges in our generation of medicine. Central to Centivax’s DNA is a commitment to making all of our medicines available at close to cost in the developing world, and to run a lean business that keeps our medicines affordable. We focus on common-sense rapid product creation as a means of ensuring a sustainable R&D budget while reducing our reliance on external funding and ensuring that our incentives are always aligned with making medicines that matter. In 2019, Centivax’s universal vaccine technology had been awarded a Gates Foundation Grand Challenge “End the Pandemic Threat” award and in 2020, was featured in the Netflix documentary series Pandemic: How to Prevent an Outbreak.
