Lyell Immunopharma (Nasdaq: LYEL) to Acquire ImmPACT Bio, prioritizes its Pipeline to Focus on Next-Generation CAR T-cell Therapies

Lyell Immunopharma, Inc. (Nasdaq: LYEL) announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire ImmPACT Bio USA Inc. (“ImmPACT”), a privately-owned clinical-stage biotechnology company. ImmPACT’s lead program, IMPT-314, is a CD19/20-targeting chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell product candidate that Lyell will continue to develop for hematologic malignancies, including large B-cell lymphoma. IMPT-314 was designed to outperform the efficacy of approved CD19 CAR T-cell therapies via a dual-targeting CAR T-cell design and to improve CAR T-cell persistence by enriching for naïve and central memory T cells during manufacturing. The acquisition of ImmPACT is expected to significantly strengthen Lyell’s clinical-stage pipeline of next- generation CAR T-cell therapies and complement its suite of proprietary technologies designed to generate longer-lasting, functional T cells to achieve more durable outcomes for patients with solid tumors and hematologic malignancies.

“Lyell’s vision is to bring meaningful and durable clinical benefit to patients suffering from cancer with our next-generation cell therapies,” stated Lynn Seely, M.D., Lyell’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “The emerging data from ImmPACT’s ongoing Phase 1-2 trial and the Phase 1 clinical data from a published UCLA-sponsored trial suggest the potential of IMPT-314 to have improved complete response rates and duration of response compared to the approved CD19 CAR T-cell therapies in CAR-naïve patients with aggressive B-cell lymphoma. Since licensing this product candidate from UCLA, the team at ImmPACT has made impressive progress in the multi-center IMPT-314 Phase 1-2 clinical program. We look forward to presenting initial data from this program at a major medical conference later this year and initiating a pivotal trial for IMPT-314 in 2025.”

“I am incredibly proud of the ImmPACT team and all of their accomplishments in developing next-generation CAR T-cell therapies,” stated Sumant Ramachandra, M.D., Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of ImmPACT. “This transaction validates our novel science and enhances the potential for this therapy to make a meaningful impact on patients’ lives. I am confident that in Lyell, we have found a team that shares our passion for advancing novel science to benefit patients.”