Zoster vaccine live(Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp.)

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., Feb. 12, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Centivax, Inc., a clinical-stage biotechnology company engineering vaccines and therapies for durable, universal protection against highly diverse targets, today announced that the first participants have been dosed in the company's Phase 1A clinical trial evaluating Centi-Flu 01, a pan-influenza universal flu vaccine, in healthy volunteers. The study is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, dose escalation study with an open-label active-controlled phase, to evaluate the safety and immunogenicity of Centi‑Flu 01 in healthy adults 18-64 years of age and those 65 and older. The Phase 1A represents a key milestone toward a new kind of flu vaccine designed to provide broader, more reliable protection than standard seasonal vaccines—protecting against currently circulating strains, future strains and pandemic strains. Unlike conventional seasonal influenza vaccines, which must be reformulated annually to attempt to match predicted circulating strains, Centi-Flu 01 is designed to focus both antibody and cellular immune responses on conserved regions of the influenza virus that cannot mutate and are shared across strains and distance subtypes. This approach aims to generate broad, consistent, and durable immunity against both seasonal and pandemic influenza. "For decades, flu vaccination has been reactive," said Sawsan Youssef, PhD, founder and Chief Science Officer of Centivax. "A universal influenza vaccine allows us to be proactive—moving from annual guesswork to predictable durable response." In addition to safety, the study will evaluate efficacy based on established correlates of protection, using the gold-standard hemagglutination inhibition (HAI) assay against a panel of more than twenty flu strains—including currently circulating strains, historical mismatch strains, seasonal guidance strains, and pandemic strains—in a direct head-to-head comparison with existing standard-of-care flu vaccines. Because the HAI assay is the same correlate-of-protection used to license seasonal flu vaccines, positive data will provide a clear benchmark demonstrating the candidate's ability to deliver broad protection with a single vaccine. The first data, in 180 subjects, is expected within the year. "We are aiming to correct the problem so many of us experience: where, despite taking a flu shot, you still get sick," said Jacob Glanville, PhD, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Centivax. "The Phase 1A is a key value-inflection point for the company because we will see very quickly whether the vaccine—and the universal immunity platform—is working and if it outperforms standard of care. This accelerates us towards the very large $7B a year flu market and the unmet medical need of consistent immune protection against flu." Beyond its flagship universal flu program, Centivax's epitope-focusing platform is advancing a growing pipeline spanning a pan-herpes Alzheimer's preventative, a broad oncology treatment, a malaria vaccine, and a universal antivenom recently published in Cell and featured by major media. Collectively, these programs underscore the universal immunity platform's broad potential to tackle diverse medical threats. "Vaccines can deliver benefits well beyond preventing the initial infection, serious disease and symptom reactivation caused by pathogens," said Jerry Sadoff, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Centivax. "From my much earlier work helping lead the development of Zostavax, we're now seeing evidence that shingles vaccination is associated with lower risks of Alzheimer's disease and cardiovascular events. That's a glimpse of what's possible. We believe universal vaccines can take this further—expanding protection across diverse pathogens as well as protecting against the diverse long-term pathology they contribute to." The Centivax universal immunity mission has been supported by a broad coalition of investors, strategic partners, philanthropic organizations, and U.S. government entities dedicated to advancing next-generation immunology and strengthening global pandemic preparedness. This includes over $26M in non-dilutive financing from groups such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness (CEPI), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Military Infectious Diseases Research Program (MIDRP), the U.S. Naval Medical Research Command (NMRC), the Department of Defense (DOD) and others. Centivax investors include Future Ventures, NFX, Global Health Investment Corporation (GHIC), BOLD Capital Partners, Base4 Capital, Kendall Capital Partners, Amplify Partners, and others. About Centivax Centivax is a universal immunity company, deploying a proprietary computational immune-engineering platform to create vaccines and therapies that deliver universal protection against entire classes of diverse targets. The lead clinical candidate for influenza—featured in The New Yorker , the Netflix docuseries Pandemic: How to Prevent an Outbreak, and other outlets—addresses a greater than $7 billion global flu market, with follow-on programs spanning a growing pipeline for Alzheimer's disease, oncology, malaria and a universal antivenom. This growing portfolio underscores the technology's broad potential not only to protect against a wide array of infectious diseases–including viral, bacterial, protozoan, fungal, parasitic and man-made bioterror threats–but also to improve healthspan by reducing the long-term complications these pathogens can trigger, such as neurodegenerative disease, cancer, cardiovascular disease, and autoimmune conditions. Centivax is headquartered in South San Francisco, California. Visit and follow @Centivax on X. Media Contact Stephanie Wisner, MBA Chief Business Officer [email protected] | +1 415-712-0001 SOURCE Centivax 21% more press release views with Request a Demo

According to a group of researchers from Stanford University, a shingles vaccine could both lower the risk of developing dementia and slow its progress. Credit: Shutterstock Research from Stanford Medicine shows that shingles vaccines could reduce dementia diagnoses by 20% and may slow disease progression in existing patients A shingles vaccine could reduce the risk of dementia by 20%, according to new research from Stanford Medicine . The study, first published in April 2025 in Nature, analysed health records from more than 280,000 older adults in Wales and found that those who received the live-attenuated shingles vaccine were 20% less likely to develop dementia over the following seven years than those who did not receive it. A follow-up study published in December 2025 in Cell suggests the vaccine may also slow disease progression in people already living with dementia, with vaccinated patients showing a significantly lower risk of dying from the disease. The study shows some evidence of a link between viral infections and cognitive decline. These findings could prove to be vitally important for the treatment of dementia going forward How the experiment happened The research capitalised on an unusual vaccination policy in Wales that created near-perfect conditions for testing the vaccine's effects without the biases that plague observational studies. Beginning in September 2013, Wales made the shingles vaccine available only to people who were exactly 79 years old on that date, with eligibility lasting for one year. Those who had already turned 80 were permanently excluded from the programme, creating a sharp cut-off based entirely on date of birth rather than health status or personal choice. "All these associational studies suffer from the basic problem that people who go get vaccinated have different health behaviours than those who don't," says Pascal Geldsetzer, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Stanford University and senior author of both studies. The researchers compared health outcomes of people born just one week apart on either side of the eligibility threshold. About half of those eligible received the vaccine, compared with almost none of those who were ineligible. By 2020, when participants were aged 86 and 87, one in eight had been diagnosed with dementia. The study says that those who received the vaccine were 20% less likely to have developed the condition. "It was a really striking finding," says Pascal. "This huge protective signal was there, any which way you looked at the data." The researchers found the two groups indistinguishable in education levels, uptake of other vaccinations and rates of diabetes, heart disease and cancer. Pascal Geldsetzer, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Stanford University. Credit: Stanford Potential for existing dementia patients The second study examined whether the vaccine's benefits extended beyond prevention to people already showing signs of cognitive problems . Using the same natural experiment structure, the researchers found that vaccinated individuals were less likely to be diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment during a nine-year follow-up. Among the 7,049 Welsh seniors who had dementia at the start of the vaccination programme, nearly half died from the disease during follow-up. Only about 30% of those who received the vaccine died from dementia. "The most exciting part is that this really suggests the shingles vaccine doesn't have only preventive, delaying benefits for dementia, but also therapeutic potential for those who already have dementia," Pascal explains. The findings have been replicated in health records from England, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. "We just keep seeing this strong protective signal for dementia in dataset after dataset," he adds. The most exciting part is that this really suggests the shingles vaccine doesn't have only preventive, delaying benefits for dementia, but also therapeutic potential for those who already have dementia. Pascal Geldsetzer, Assistant Professor of Medicine at Stanford University How can a shingles vaccine reduce dementia risk? Shingles is caused by the varicella-zoster virus, which remains dormant in nerve cells after causing chickenpox in childhood. The virus can reactivate in older adults or those with weakened immune systems, causing the painful rash characteristic of shingles. Pascal suggested two possible mechanisms for the vaccine's protective effect. The dormant virus causes ongoing inflammation in the nervous system even whilst hibernating, and reducing these reactivations through vaccination may benefit the dementia disease process. Alternatively, the vaccine may provide a broad boost to the immune system overall, strengthening its ability to fight off various infections that have been linked to increased dementia risk. The study also found that protection against dementia was far more pronounced in women than in men, possibly due to sex differences in immune response. Women typically have higher antibody responses to vaccination and are more likely to develop shingles than men. Calls for clinical trials The research focused on the live-attenuated shingles vaccine Zostavax, which is no longer manufactured. A newer vaccine called Shingrix, which contains only certain proteins from the virus, may have similar or even greater impact on dementia. Pascal is now seeking funding for a large randomised controlled trial, which would provide definitive proof of cause and effect. He noted that the Wales data showed dementia rates beginning to diverge between vaccinated and unvaccinated groups within 18 months, suggesting a trial might not take long to yield results. The live-attenuated vaccine is no longer produced by pharmaceutical companies, making philanthropic funding necessary for such a trial. Dementia affects more than 55 million people worldwide, with an estimated 10 million new cases each year according to the World Health Organization. Decades of research focusing on protein plaques and tangles in the brains of Alzheimer's patients have yet to produce effective prevention or treatment options, prompting some researchers to explore alternative avenues including viral infections. The studies received funding from The Phil & Penny Knight Initiative for Brain Resilience, the National Institute on Aging, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Chan Zuckerberg Biohub. Company portals Stanford Health Care Executives Pascal Geldsetzer Assistant Professor of Medicine at Stanford University