Astellas Pharma Inc. and ClearPath Development Company announced a strategic partnership to form a portfolio of development companies focused on vaccines targeting infectious diseases. The partnership was established to support Astellas' goal of building a global vaccine franchise and launched its first company, RSV Corporation (RSVC), in December 2013. Astellas will fund RSVC's development of a virosome vaccine technology, licensed from Mymetics Corporation, for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) through completion of a Phase 2b human proof-of-concept study.

Based on the strategic partnership, Astellas received exclusive rights to acquire RSVC as well as further develop and commercialize the vaccine product. Mymetics will collaborate with RSVC on the development of the vaccine, with Toon Stegmann PhD, CSO of Mymetics, remaining engaged on pre-clinical activities including nonclinical evaluation, formulation development, and manufacturing.