With Lava Therapeutics still smoldering from the decision to dump its lead blood cancer drug, the biotech is now laying off 30% of its staff in an effort to conserve cash.

Since deciding in December that its bispecific gamma delta T-cell engager had not reached the company’s “internal benchmarks,” Lava has shifted focus to LAVA-1266, a CD123-targeting T-cell engager initially focused on acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS).

Lava Therapeutics has jettisoned its only wholly owned clinical-stage asset after the blood cancer drug “did not reach Lava’s internal benchmarks.”

The Dutch biotech had been evaluating the candidate, dubbed LAVA-1207, in a phase 1 trial for prostate-specific membrane antigen-positive metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC).

While a long-rumored acquisition by Merck & Co. still hasn’t materialized, Seagen is forging ahead with a deal of its own, grabbing rights to a bispecific antibody drug from Lava Therapeutics.