Lyell Immunopharma, a cell therapy developer that has struggled to match its high profile, is acquiring a biotechnology startup and streamlining research in a bid to focus on a slate of cellular immunotherapies for cancer.The company on Thursday said its reached a deal to buy ImmPact Bio, a cell therapy startup thats been focused on cancer and autoimmune diseases, for $30 million in cash and 37.5 million shares of Lyell stock. ImmPact stockholders could get another 12.5 million Lyell shares in the deal if certain milestones are met, as well as some sales royalties should the startups lead therapy reach market.Lyell has also pared down its pipeline to focus on what it described as its most differentiated programs, which include an experimental therapy for solid tumors and an ImmPact blood cancer treatment that are both in clinical testing. The company is halting research into a different type of cell therapy as well as an earlier solid tumor treatment. Lyell now expects its financial runway to last into 2027.For Lyell, the moves comes as the company searches for a turnaround. Lyell was formed by two co-founders of Juno Therapeutics, a cell therapy company Celgene bought before it was acquired by Bristol Myers Squibb. The company raised nearly $1 billion from some of the same investors that backed Juno, among them Arch Venture Partners. It followed that up with a $425 million initial public offering in 2021 one of the largest new biotech stock offerings since 2018, according to BioPharma Dive data.Lyell raised that cash on plans to advance the cell therapy field beyond the handful of blood cancers available CAR-T products are approved to treat. The companys core technologies are meant to boost various properties of T cells, enabling its treatments to theoretically target additional tumors or be more potent than existing therapies.However, the company has had a difficult time proving its case since going public. It lost a partnership with GSK in 2022 and, a year later, laid off a quarter of its staff. One of the companys lead therapies, a blood cancer cell therapy called LYL797, ran into safety problems and didnt have a broad enough therapeutic window, CEO Lynn Seely said on a conference call Thursday. A second, so-called tumor-infiltrating lymphocyte treatment in testing for melanoma, didnt meet the companys rigorous pre-determined criteria for continued development, Lyell said in a statement.Company shares, which debuted at $17 apiece in 2021, were worth about $1.10 at market close Thursday.Lyell executives are banking on Thursdays reset to change the companys course. Despite the high bar set by lymphoma cell therapies like Gileads Yescarta and Bristol Myers Squibbs Breyanzi, Lyell claimed the therapy its acquiring from ImmPact has shown the potential in early testing to produce superior results. Lyell intends to present initial data from that program, IMPT-314, at a medical meeting this year and start a pivotal trial in 2025 in people whove received at least two prior therapies but havent yet gotten a CAR-T treatment.ImmPact was developing the technology behind IMPT-314 for B-cell lymphomas as well as for autoimmune conditions, an area of research thats lately drawn the interest of many cell therapy developers. Lyell, though, is prioritizing IMPT-314s potential in blood cancers.It's clearly differentiating from the approved CAR-T cell therapies, Seely said on the call. It gives an opportunity, we believe, to take market share.Lyell is also turning to a newer version of LYL797 it says could produce better efficacy at lower doses. That therapy, dubbed LYL119, should have a broader therapeutic window and be safer than its predecessor, Seely told analysts.The company plans to start enrolling patients with ovarian or endometrial cancers in a study either this year or early next. '