Maravai LifeSciences Q3 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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Provided by Quartr
November 6, 2025

Key Takeaways

  • Negative Sentiment: Q3 revenue was $41.6M versus $69M a year ago, driven by a steep decline in Nucleic Acid Products (NAP) — NAP fell 53% YoY (base NAP down ~29% ex‑COVID CleanCap) due mainly to timing/lumpy GMP and CDMO orders.
  • Positive Sentiment: Management is executing a cost reset targeting > $50 million of annualized savings, expects >$7M sequential adjusted EBITDA improvement in Q4, and is targeting a return to positive adjusted EBITDA in 2026.
  • Positive Sentiment: Biologics Safety Testing (Cygnus) showed durable strength — $16.3M in Q3 (+7% YoY), 100% coverage across approved CAR T/gene therapy products, strong adoption of MOCV viral clearance and HCP assays, and a high adjusted EBITDA margin (64.8%).
  • Positive Sentiment: TriLink expects strong NAP momentum in Q4 with most GMP orders already in hand and early commercial traction for innovations — MODTAIL (9 clients plus 14 catalog orders) and the mRNA Builder platform have doubled orders and improved quotes‑to‑order conversion, supporting longer‑term growth upside.
  • Negative Sentiment: Financials still reflect near‑term pressure: Q3 GAAP net loss $45.1M, adjusted EBITDA negative $10.8M, cash used in operations $15.2M, $243.6M cash vs $295.6M long‑term debt, and 2025 adjusted EBITDA expected to finish around a $35M loss (Q4 ~$3.5M loss).
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Earnings Conference Call
Maravai LifeSciences Q3 2025
00:00 / 00:00

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Operator

Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to today's Maravai LifeSciences third quarter 2025 earnings results conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, you will have the opportunity to ask questions during our question-and-answer session, and you may register to ask a question at any time by pressing star one on your telephone. Also, today's call is being recorded, and if you should need any operator assistance during the call today, please press star zero at any time. Now, at this time, I'd like to turn things over to Ms. Deb Hart, Head of Investor Relations. Ms. Hart, please go ahead, ma'am.

Deb Hart
Deb Hart
Head of Investor Relations at Maravai LifeSciences

Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for joining us on our third quarter 2025 earnings call. The press release and slides accompanying today's call are posted on our website and available at investors.maravai.com. During today's call, management will make forward-looking statements and refer to GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures. It's possible that actual results could differ from management's expectations. We refer you to slide three for details on forward-looking statements and our use of non-GAAP financial measures. The press release provides reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP measures, and we also post a reconciling schedule to our investor website. Please also refer to Maravai's SEC filings for additional information on the risks and uncertainties that may impact our operating results, performance, and financial condition. Now, I'll turn the call over to our Chief Executive Officer, Bernd Brust.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

Good afternoon, and thank you all for joining. Let's begin with a review of our third quarter performance on slide five. For Q3, we reported $41.6 million in total revenue, with Biologics Safety Testing generating $16.3 million, growing at 7%, and Nucleic Acid Products contributing $25.4 million, declining at 53% year-over-year. Cygnus continues to perform well, with strength from the U.S. and European markets. Although we experienced a decline in Q3 revenue performance from TriLink, this was in line with our expectations and driven by order timing in our GMP and CDMO businesses, segments that by nature are lumpy. Excluding COVID GMP CleanCap, we expect strong top-line growth for NAP in Q4, with the majority of orders already in hand. Please turn to slide six.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

As we shared during our Q2 call in August, our immediate focus as a new management team was to get our cost structure in line and position the company for both positive adjusted EBITDA and cash flow in 2026. We have stabilized our operations and significantly reduced expenses, strengthening our balance sheet going forward. We are on track to lower our expected annualized expenses by greater than $50 million. We expect to see more than $7 million in sequential adjusted EBITDA improvements in Q4. The execution of the restructuring is largely complete, and the remaining initiatives are progressing to plan. The work we have done to reset, refocus, and strengthen the company positions us to deliver attractive growth in Q4 while continuing to serve our customers with the same dedication we've had in the past.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

Turning to Biologics Safety Testing on slide seven, our Cygnus business continues to deliver strong recurring revenue with broad adoption across novel monoclonal antibodies, biosimilars, recombinant vaccines, and all 25 approved CAR-T cell and gene therapy products, maintaining our 100% coverage in this space. We are expanding our HCP assay portfolio, including novel mass spectrometry-based assays and seeing robust demand for contract services, MockV viral clearance kits, and custom assays. Q3 marks our second quarter of year-over-year growth in BST. The strength in Q3 came largely from our core markets in the Americas and Europe, which were up 8% and 17% year-over-year, respectively. We believe this growth reflects renewed focus on biologics development and manufacturing by biopharma and CDMO companies.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

Cygnus's position as the gold standard and thought leader with regulatory agencies and throughout the industry helps ensure customer retention, and we believe our expanding full-service offerings can fuel continued growth for our BST segment. Turning to our Nucleic Acid Products segment on slide eight, we offer discovery consumables, GMP consumables, and CDMO services for therapeutic, vaccine, and diagnostics applications. TriLink's discovery market continues to be influenced by the broader macro environment and lower funding levels. While a portion of our discovery revenue comes from early-stage basic research, a substantial share, approximately 60%, is generated from larger orders that typically reflect more advanced programs that have moved beyond early discovery into later-stage screening and preclinical development activities. We are encouraged by early signs of stability and renewed growth in these higher-value orders.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

In Q3, our discovery business achieved modest sequential growth, and we are seeing strong momentum into Q4, supported by a healthy funnel and strong start in October. In TriLink GMP consumables, historically, we have presented GMP CleanCap sales related to COVID, amounting to approximately $66 million in 2024, with no projected revenue for 2025. The fourth quarter will mark our last period of negative comparison of $14.3 million. Beginning in 2026 onwards, we anticipate annual revenues of roughly $10 million-$20 million from COVID vaccines and will manage the business holistically, embedding COVID GMP CleanCap as part of our ongoing GMP consumables portfolio. In the third quarter, our base GMP consumables revenue declined due to the timing of CleanCap GMP orders, which typically align with customer programs advancing into next-stage trials. This revenue stream traditionally has quarter-to-quarter variability.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

Despite lower third-quarter revenue, we have strong visibility into our fourth-quarter forecast and expect strong sequential and year-over-year growth in base GMP consumables. On the innovation front, we launched our ModTail technology. ModTail enhances mRNA protein expression and duration, both key for next-generation RNA medicine, and is showing promising results in early trials at both established customers and internal trials. We are aggressively driving adoption through targeted marketing and customer sampling, with ModTail now offered as an opt-in on every quote. We believe this innovation will help broaden our customer base, drive new customers into our ecosystem, and is expected to be a future revenue driver, especially in CAR-T and oncology applications. While our ModTail works seamlessly with our CleanCap technology, there are also significant improvements seen even when using an enzymatic capping mechanism, thus opening the sales channel to non-CleanCap users.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

Through Q3 2025, we've already had nine clients use our new mRNA plus ModTail services, some for multiple programs, and another 14 clients have ordered our catalog ModTail products. We're also pleased with the reception of our IVT kits, which combine several of TriLink's innovative RNA discovery products to create an all-in-one solution for high-performance RNA synthesis. These kits were launched in May, and although still early days, the momentum has been terrific. We've had consistent bookings growth month over month since launch with both existing and new customers. Importantly, these kits serve as an entry point for customers who may transition into using our GMP products over time, expanding our user base, strengthening cross-product adoption, and fostering long-term relationships. Based on their early success, we plan to launch additional kits in 2026. Last quarter, I highlighted the launch of our computer-aided design and order platform, mRNA Builder.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

I'm pleased to report an encouraging early response. Customers are now designing and ordering mRNA constructs through our fully guided self-service workflow, enabling us to serve more clients with greater operational efficiency. Since the launch of the platform, we've seen a doubling of the number of orders placed. Customers require minimal or no direct interaction during the purchasing process. Increasing our quotes-to-order conversion rates to over 80%. We are working to expand the platform and to commercially launch on a larger scale, broadening our digital ecosystem. Within the NAP business, we also have our CDMO services. Please turn to slide nine. Our CDMO capabilities set us apart, offering comprehensive support from discovery through late-stage clinical development.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

We are seeing increased engagement from both new and repeat customers, particularly in the cell and gene therapy market, and have secured multi-year supply agreements, which enhance our revenue visibility and strengthen our long-term partnerships. Maravai is uniquely positioned for this industry, and we plan to continue to add capabilities to support our cell and gene therapy customers. The anticipated growth in this sector suggests that our CDMO business can support the mRNA market without depending solely on infectious disease vaccine manufacturing. In 2026, we are expecting an increase in the number of CDMO programs we support, as well as an increase in the average batch size per build. Please turn to slide ten. While Maravai has had challenges over the last year, my team and I have taken decisive actions to adjust our cost structure and to reinforce our foundation.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

Our core technologies, deep customer relationships, and strong end-market exposure remain powerful assets that position us for growth in Q4, into 2026, and beyond. What I would like to leave you with today is that I continue to be energized by the opportunity to lead Maravai. Being in the CEO seat for five months now, I, along with my leadership team, have developed our strategy based on three fundamental pillars for results: operational excellence, revenue growth, and, of course, return to positive adjusted EBITDA in 2026. We are operating with greater financial discipline, prioritizing cash generation and aligning investments with clear ROI. With a strong balance sheet and healthy liquidity, we have the flexibility to invest in the highest return opportunities while maintaining profitability improvement as a top priority. I have the utmost confidence in our future.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

Now I'd like to turn the call over to Raj Asarpota, our CFO, for more details on the quarter and our financial guidance.

Raj Asarpota
Raj Asarpota
CFO at Maravai LifeSciences

Thank you, Bernd. Let's turn to the Q3 financial results on slide 12. Revenue for the quarter was $41.6 million compared to $69 million in Q3 2024. Excluding revenue for COVID GMP CleanCap, base revenue in Q3 2024 was $50.8 million. So the base business, which excludes GMP CleanCap orders, primarily related to COVID vaccine programs, was down 18% for Q3 versus 2024. Our Nucleic Acid Products, or NAP segment, had revenue of $25.4 million in Q3. The Biologics Safety Testing segment, or BST revenue, was $16.3 million in the third quarter. I will discuss segment results a little later in the call. Revenues by customer type in Q3 were 27% biopharma, 32% Life Sciences and Diagnostics, 4% academia, 8% CRO, CMO, CDMO, and 29% through distributors.

Raj Asarpota
Raj Asarpota
CFO at Maravai LifeSciences

Revenue by geography was 60% North America, 19% EMEA, 12% Asia Pacific, excluding China, 8% in China, and 1% from Latin and Central America. Turning to slide 13, our GAAP net loss before non-controlling interest was $45.1 million for the third quarter of 2025. This compares to a GAAP net loss before non-controlling interest of $172.5 million for the comparable third quarter of 2024. Note that in Q3 2024, there was a goodwill impairment charge of $154.2 million. Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP measure, was a negative $10.8 million for Q3 2025 compared to a positive $16.2 million for Q3 2024. Moving to slide 14 and EPS. Basic and diluted EPS for the third quarter was a loss of $0.18 per share compared to a loss of $0.68 per share in the third quarter of 2024.

Raj Asarpota
Raj Asarpota
CFO at Maravai LifeSciences

Adjusted EPS in Q3 2025 was a loss of $0.08 compared to a loss of $0.01 in Q3 2024. Advancing to the balance sheet, cash flow, and other financial metrics on slide 15. We ended the quarter with $243.6 million in cash and $295.6 million in long-term debt. For Q3 2025, cash used in operations was $15.2 million. This includes a $1.6 million impact from restructuring expenses. Depreciation and amortization was $13.2 million, and interest expense, net of interest income, was $4 million in the quarter. Stock-based compensation, a non-cash charge, was $9.1 million for the quarter. Next to slide 16 and the discussion of segment performance. The NAP segment had revenue of $25.4 million in Q3, 61% of total revenue. Base NAP business, excluding GMP COVID CleanCap, was down 29% year-over-year. The year-over-year revenue decline in NAP was driven by the following.

Raj Asarpota
Raj Asarpota
CFO at Maravai LifeSciences

First, the timing of GMP product orders we saw in Q3 2024 not recurring in Q3 of this year. As Bernd mentioned, this part of the business can receive large orders as customer programs advance in clinical trials, and we already have strong order velocity for GMP consumables in Q4 and into 2026. Second, CDMO bills from Q3 last year did not repeat in Q3 of 2025. We have a strong funnel for contracted CDMO services revenue, some of which is expected to be recognized in Q4. Third, discovery continues to be impacted by the current funding environment and other macro conditions. While discovery was down year-over-year, we did see growth in Q3 over Q2 for our discovery consumables, and we've seen a strong start to Q4.

Raj Asarpota
Raj Asarpota
CFO at Maravai LifeSciences

Bernd discussed some of the trends we are seeing in discovery, particularly in the screening and preclinical part of the business that is less impacted by funding dynamics. Adjusted EBITDA for NAP was -$7.9 million in Q3. We view Q3 as a low bar and see significant growth in Q4 for NAP. BST grew 7% year-over-year to $16.3 million in the third quarter, or 39% of total revenue. The strong year-over-year growth was driven by demand for wholesale protein kits and quantification services and increasing adoption of MockV viral clearance products. In BST, we saw strength in the U.S. and European markets while China was down. Adjusted EBITDA for BST was $10.5 million for an adjusted EBITDA margin of 64.8%.

Raj Asarpota
Raj Asarpota
CFO at Maravai LifeSciences

We incurred an increase in cost of goods sold in Q3 in BST due to a change in our labor and overhead capitalization methodology tied to team realignments, which temporarily reduced EBITDA margins, but creates greater operational efficiency and long-term margin improvements. Corporate share service expenses impacting adjusted EBITDA totaled $13.4 million in the third quarter. These services include centralized functions such as human resources, finance and accounting, legal, information technology, and the incremental expenses associated with being a public company. This is another large pocket of costs within the organization that we have reduced with the cost actions announced last quarter. We're on track for the expected greater than $50 million annualized reduction in expenses and expect that we will have reduced expenses by more than $10 million in the second half of 2025.

Raj Asarpota
Raj Asarpota
CFO at Maravai LifeSciences

The strategic realignment and cost reduction initiatives are proceeding according to plan, and a foundation focused on executional rigor has been established with the aim of expanding margins. We expect more than $7 million in sequential adjusted EBITDA improvements in Q4. Now, let's address our guidance for 2025 on slide 17. As you likely recall, as a new leadership team, we made the decision to withdraw the company's prior guidance range to give us a chance to complete a full business review. That process is now complete. We're also confident that we have a disciplined forecasting process in place with cross-functional engagement embedded in monthly planning and visibility improving across our business units. We anticipate closing 2025 with revenue of approximately $185 million. This implies Q4 growth of 18% over the third quarter, and excluding GMP COVID CleanCap, Q4 base business growth of 16% year-over-year.

Raj Asarpota
Raj Asarpota
CFO at Maravai LifeSciences

We also expect our 2025 adjusted EBITDA loss to be roughly $35 million for the year, which would mean an adjusted EBITDA loss of $3.5 million in Q4. In closing, I'm encouraged by the steps we have already taken and continue to position Maravai for long-term success. Our financial discipline is evident in our ongoing efforts to align investments with strategic priorities and to optimize operational execution across all segments. We're committed to driving efficiencies, enhancing our cost structure, and ensuring that every dollar invested yields measurable value for our shareholders. With clear financial targets and a roadmap for returning to revenue growth and expected positive adjusted EBITDA in 2026, I'm confident in the trajectory of our business. We will offer detailed guidance for 2026 during our fourth quarter call.

Raj Asarpota
Raj Asarpota
CFO at Maravai LifeSciences

The progress we have made so far, combined with our operational rigor, sets the stage for sustainable growth and value creation in the quarters and years ahead. I'm optimistic about what lies ahead for Maravai. I'll now turn the call back to the operator to begin the Q&A session.

Operator

Certainly. Thank you, sir. Ladies and gentlemen, at this time, if you do have any questions or comments, please press star one. If you do find your question has been addressed, you may remove yourself from the queue by pressing star two. Additionally, management will be available for up to 30 minutes to answer your questions, but we do ask that you please limit yourself to one question and one follow-up question. We'll go first this afternoon to Justin Bowers with Deutsche Bank.

Justin Bowers
Justin Bowers
Equity Research Analyst at Deutsche Bank

Hi, good afternoon, everyone. Just curious on the anticipated $10 million-$20 million revenue contribution in 2026 from COVID CleanCap. Do you have commitments for those orders, or is that more around just conversations that you're having with the customer and/or customers and indications there?

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

Hey, Justin. It's Bernd. It's a combination of two. We have some orders in hand and others tied to customer discussions. That 10-20 is a good number.

Justin Bowers
Justin Bowers
Equity Research Analyst at Deutsche Bank

Okay. Thank you. In terms of the cost savings that you have running through in the fourth quarter and next year as well, is that coming out of the COGS line, SG&A? Sort of what's the split in the thinking there?

Raj Asarpota
Raj Asarpota
CFO at Maravai LifeSciences

Yeah. I'll take that. This is Raj. As we've communicated previously, the $50 million plus comes through a bunch of different categories. We expect about 40%-50% of those kind of realizing from labor cost reductions, another 15%-20% on facilities, 15%-20% on CapEx, and then another 15%-20% on other controllable spend. If you look at the split between COGS and OpEx, it's roughly 50/50.

Justin Bowers
Justin Bowers
Equity Research Analyst at Deutsche Bank

Okay. Thank you. I'll jump back in queue.

Operator

Thank you. We go next now to Matt Larew of William Blair.

Operator

Hi. This is Jake Grimbjorn for Matt. Just wanted to ask about that strategic review. It sounds like it's largely been concluded, which is good to hear. Maybe just more high level on the first part, wondering if you could just talk a little bit about your key findings from the review. What was the most surprising or maybe stuck out to you? What would you say the actual outcome of the review is? It sounds like the adjusted EBITDA and free cash flow positive targets for 2026 are still intact, but maybe what are the sensitivities to that timeline, to the target, and visibility into achieving them both on sooner than expected, but also potentially them being pushed out?

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

Let me maybe take the high-level side here and then hand it over to you. I think specifically to the findings that we've been here for, irrespectively, four or five months now or so together. The choices we made to restructure the business and obviously impact quite a few people's careers here is tough, but I think ultimately when it's smooth, this is good to have gone. I think the finding here for sure has been the company was probably structured a little too heavily for what its basis. I think ultimately what we have experienced here is a business today that runs much better. I think we have a leadership team that's highly engaged and focused on building this business to where it needs to be again. Ultimately, I think the impact on the business with the changes we've made has been minimal.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

I think findings of being heavily structured in areas where we shouldn't have been, those in our downsized, has worked out great for the business.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

Great. Thanks. Then just a follow-up, I wanted to ask about the BST performance in the quarter. Good to see this business now return to growth for two consecutive quarters now. I imagine a lot of that has to be driven by the improving biotech funding backdrop. I really wanted to unpack where you're seeing strength here on a regional perspective. I think you mentioned strength in the U.S. and Europe. While China remains weak, we've heard from peers this reporting cycle. China seems like it's starting to recover. Just wondering what you're seeing there and maybe what's embedded in your outlook.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

I think you're spot on with what you said. I mean, I think in our last earnings call, there was some question whether strength was coming because of some related tariffs in China and people stocking up. Clearly, it's not the case here. It's nice to see strength coming back in the core markets of the U.S. and Europe. I'm in agreement with you. I think it's starting to show improvement on funding. We'll see how the continuing quarters will be, but certainly we're optimistic about where this business is heading.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

Thank you.

Operator

We'll go next now to Doug Schenkel of Wolf Research.

Madeline Mollman
Madeline Mollman
Senior Associate and Equity Research Analyst of Life Science Tools and Diagnostics at Wolfe Research

Hi, this is Madeline Mollman on for Doug Schenkel. I just wanted to touch on the gross margin. Gross margin's been in the teens so far this year. I know you talked about taking about $25 million of the $50 million out of the COGS line. How should we think about the gross margin expansion in Q4 and then into 2026, especially if you do get that contribution from the COVID CleanCap, which is typically one of your higher margin products?

Raj Asarpota
Raj Asarpota
CFO at Maravai LifeSciences

Yeah. Good question. I think as we feel, as we kind of look ahead into Q4, you can definitely kind of think about modeling improvements with the cost reductions we've announced. We'll give more specific guidance in our fourth quarter call. There will be improvement in gross margin, primarily related to product mix. Like you said, as we start to get more GMP orders in, that gross margin rate will improve.

Madeline Mollman
Madeline Mollman
Senior Associate and Equity Research Analyst of Life Science Tools and Diagnostics at Wolfe Research

Great. Thank you. Just one clarification. You talked last quarter about some of the high-volume CleanCap orders that could come in 2026. Is that $10-$20 million of COVID orders the same as what you mentioned last quarter, or would this be on top of that?

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

Oh, that is the same.

Madeline Mollman
Madeline Mollman
Senior Associate and Equity Research Analyst of Life Science Tools and Diagnostics at Wolfe Research

Got it. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. We go next now to Catherine Schulte of Baird.

Tom Peterson
Tom Peterson
Senior Research Associate at Baird

Hey, everyone. This is Tom Peterson on for Catherine. Just wanted to maybe dig in on the TriLink funnel and order velocity that you spoke to. You mentioned orders in hand thus far kind of supporting this outlook. I guess, is this just kind of typical order timing or lumpiness, or do you think there's something else that's really contributing to the sequential improvement?

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

I think it's a combination of both again here. When you look at Q3, it's hard to feel great, obviously, about the revenues that happened in the GMP business there, but nothing was unexpected as far as our forecasts were from our customers. I think part of this is just purely timing that we normally experience in this part of our business. I do think we're seeing some positive direction of seeing incremental orders coming in. We've seen a number of larger orders coming through our system in the last couple of months. All of that is pretty much tied to either screening kind of activities or sort of earlier stage clinical trial work. It's nice to see some of that movement happening.

Tom Peterson
Tom Peterson
Senior Research Associate at Baird

Great. Maybe just wanted to get a few more comments on the discovery funding environment in particular. You mentioned the macro and just kind of the challenging funding environment that we've seen. I guess, what are you hearing from customers today? We maybe heard a little bit more positive developments given some of the policy outcomes around MFN and things like that. I guess, what are you hearing from this customer set?

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

Yeah. I think it's becoming more neutral, but I don't think it's great yet. I think the important part in our business, when you think about discovery. We look at the business kind of in two segments, right? Orders over $25,000, which we don't consider discovery. We have more screening and clinical trial kind of activity that's still using RUO consumables. That's about 60% of our revenues in that segment. And we feel really good about what's happening in that segment. If you look at orders under $25,000 in that Discovery segment, I still think fairly tough. However, if you think that's primarily an academic for us, that's less than 4% of our revenues today. We're fairly well shielded from what's happening in that market. Do I think you're hearing some positive things? Yes. Do I think.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

Maravai as a company is at this point very well protected against some of that funding challenge. I think we're in a good place.

Tom Peterson
Tom Peterson
Senior Research Associate at Baird

That's helpful. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. We go next now to Subbu Nambi with Guggenheim.

Ricki Levitus
Ricki Levitus
Equity Research Associate of Life Sciences Tools and Diagnostics at Guggenheim

Hi. This is Ricki on for Subbu. Thanks for taking our question. Maybe just if you could provide a little bit of color on the confidence you had in the ex-COVID GMP CleanCap in Q4 and then also in 2026, and maybe just any changes to your expectations or your outlook for excluding COVID, that GMP business longer term.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

Certainly on Q4, we have a high level of confidence. Most of these orders are in hand. We have two months left in the year. October was strong. I think we are in a good place for what the Q4 forecast is. I think macro level for 2026, we feel good. If you look at the number of orders in hand today for 2026 versus similar orders in 2024 for 2025, we are materially greater now than we were last year. I think all those indicators show the right direction that we have to take here. Raj, unless there are more specific numbers you want to add, but I would leave it with that.

Raj Asarpota
Raj Asarpota
CFO at Maravai LifeSciences

No, I think, like Bernd said, we are already seeing a lot of good visibility through our customer forecast. We've got binding purchase commitments. We've got multi-year supply agreements. That visibility gives us really kind of strong confidence, not just in Q4, but as we kind of look at the growth trajectory for 2026, we feel pretty good about it.

Ricki Levitus
Ricki Levitus
Equity Research Associate of Life Sciences Tools and Diagnostics at Guggenheim

That's helpful. Maybe just on that same topic, the visibility you have, are there any differences geographically that you'd speak to? You already talked a little bit about some of the different customer sizes and end markets, but just geographically speaking, that visibility and things.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

I think we should not give guidance on that. I think it's obviously we're seeing good strength outside the U.S. at the moment, but I think there's some nice movement happening here as well. I wouldn't go into specifics on that at this point.

Operator

Thank you. We go next now to Nathan Bolanos with UBS.

Nathan Bolanos
Nathan Bolanos
Life Sciences Equity Research Associate at UBS

Hello. Thank you so much for taking my question. Obviously, there's a lot of moving pieces, but do you have any initial thoughts on what a long-term, long-term normalized growth rate for the Nucleic Acid segment could be?

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

It's a difficult question to answer. I think we continue to feel good about growing in line with what our market peers are seeing in their various earnings calls. Now, do I think that mRNA specifically and are waiting to what mRNA gives you some material upside depending on what happens with so many of the clinical trials that are going on? Yeah, there's upside, I think. Whether that takes place and when that takes place is hard to judge. It's very much tied to how these trials are moving forward. If you put a high level of confidence in that mRNA therapeutics have a very bright future in our position within that, you have to kind of assume that greater growth will come. How to truly kind of quantify it in an exact number is very hard to do at this stage.

Nathan Bolanos
Nathan Bolanos
Life Sciences Equity Research Associate at UBS

Gotcha. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Just a quick reminder, ladies and gentlemen, any further questions today, please press star one at this time. We go next now to Matt Stanton with Jefferies.

Matt Stanton
Matt Stanton
Equity Analyst at Jefferies

Hey, thanks. Maybe going back over to Cygnus, I think year-to-date growth is kind of tracking mid-single digits. Just talk about kind of durability and visibility returning here. Any pockets that are still lagging and maybe we do not go back to the mid-teens we saw historically, but is there a pathway for this to get kind of towards more bio-processing consumable type growth? I know it is still very small today, but just any more color to share on MockV and the growth there, and then just more broadly, the potential opportunity within the viral clearance market for that product, which seems to be getting nice traction. Thanks.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

Raj, would you take that?

Raj Asarpota
Raj Asarpota
CFO at Maravai LifeSciences

Yeah, sure. For Cygnus, if you look at the broad portfolio. Our wholesale protein kits, that's kind of like our gold standard. That's been growing at that grew 7% in the quarter, and it kind of demonstrates our position with customers who remain loyal to us. To your question on MockV, yeah, that continues to grow at a pretty rapid clip due to, again, industry adoption and confidence in the product. We're seeing really good traction there as well. Even on HCP quantification services, we are continuing to grow there due to repeat customers and our focus on tactical programs to kind of engage new accounts. Just across, if you look at the different geographies, APAC was strong in it's been at 18% year over year this quarter. 8% of that growth came from the Americas, 12% in APAC, and 17% in Europe.

Raj Asarpota
Raj Asarpota
CFO at Maravai LifeSciences

All in all, the whole portfolio is holding pretty strong.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

I think we're seeing the biggest weakness is China still, right?

Raj Asarpota
Raj Asarpota
CFO at Maravai LifeSciences

Yeah.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

It's still down. When we say Asia, we kind of exclude China.

Raj Asarpota
Raj Asarpota
CFO at Maravai LifeSciences

Exclude China. Yep. China was down 12%.

Matt Stanton
Matt Stanton
Equity Analyst at Jefferies

Okay. Thanks. I appreciate all the color on some of the new products with ModTail, the IVT kit. Sounds like there's more coming, the mRNA Builder. Maybe just talk about the pipeline of innovation more broadly. It feels like you're taking maybe more of a refined approach for fewer products, but maybe those that are more impactful are more impactful sooner. As we try to start to think about what that can mean for 2026 and beyond, any of these, can they move the needle on their own? Or if we kind of package some of the meaningful launches up together, is there a chance that those could add a couple points to growth or something next year as you continue to get traction there? Thanks.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

We have our Chief Scientific Officer, Chanfeng Zhao, sitting here. We'll have her take your questions.

Chanfeng Zhao
Chanfeng Zhao
Chief Scientific Officer at Maravai LifeSciences

Yes, sure. This is Chanfeng. Yes, you are right. We are more focused on differentiation products moving forward. So ModTail is a good example of it. Typically, mRNA has a five-prong cap, but there is nothing at the three-prong end. So the way with ModTail, we add a small molecule at the three-prong end of the mRNA. That increases mRNA lifespan by resisting the exonuclease digestion. This new technology helps mRNA protein expression and the duration of the expression. It works for mRNA made with co-transcriptional capping methods, like our CleanCap method. It also works for mRNA made with enzymatic capping method. As Bernd mentioned earlier, we have a number of customers seeing promising results. It is still early in the marketplace. It is not big revenue yet, but we believe this technology will expand our customer base and also.

Chanfeng Zhao
Chanfeng Zhao
Chief Scientific Officer at Maravai LifeSciences

Introduce new customers into our ecosystem, and especially for CAR-T and oncology-related applications. It comes to the IVT kit. As you know, we have patented the CleanCap. We also have improved T7 polymerase. Over the years, we optimized IVT buffer and protocol workflow. What we really want is to have scientists in the mRNA field take benefit of what we learned over the years. It is really logical for us to have the kit. That really helps our customer to get higher mRNA yield, have a more robust IVT process, and have lower double-strand RNA. As you know, more double-strand RNA means lower immunogenicity. We believe this IVT kit serves as an entry point for helping our customers to transition into using our CleanCap GMP product over time.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

Thank you.

Matt Stanton
Matt Stanton
Equity Analyst at Jefferies

Thank you.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

Specifically, right, to our strategic direction of do we think new products in our portfolio will drive growth beyond just CleanCap in this segment? The answer is yes. There's no question that our goal is to continue to innovate consumables in the discovery world that we then take into GMP manufacturing and then have those used, obviously, in various clinical trials and commercialization eventually. I think when you look at our ModTail product, an amazing opportunity to be not just in products that use CleanCap, but also enzymatic capping. We have an enzymes business that we're trying to bring into a GMP world. We're finishing our GMP facility in Florida up on that, I think, in the next three months or so. There'll be a variety of other consumables over the next years to come that we will bring forward into GMP manufacturing.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

I think that the overall depth of our pipeline through our R&D is incredible with some really outstanding potential high flyers there as well, like ModTail.

Matt Stanton
Matt Stanton
Equity Analyst at Jefferies

Great. Appreciate all the color. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, it appears we have no further questions today. Mr. Brust, I'd like to turn things back to you, sir, for any closing comments.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

I appreciate everybody dialing in again. Q3, obviously, from a growth perspective, not something that we can all feel great about. Expected within line of what we felt as a management team. Truly believe that the vast majority of this is due to timing, and we're seeing that materialize in Q4 here. We appreciate your continued support and are excited to bring Q4 to closure here and have a next call where we can talk about all that having happened in a great 2026. I appreciate the support, and we look forward to speaking with you again in the next three months.

Operator

Thank you, Mr. Brust. Ladies and gentlemen, that will conclude the Maravai LifeSciences third quarter earnings conference call. Again, thanks so much for joining us, everyone, and we wish you all a great evening. Goodbye.

Executives
    • Chanfeng Zhao
      Chanfeng Zhao
      Chief Scientific Officer
    • Deb Hart
      Deb Hart
      Head of Investor Relations
    • Raj Asarpota
      Raj Asarpota
      CFO
    • Bernd Brust
      Bernd Brust
      CEO
Analysts
    • Analyst at William Blair
    • Justin Bowers
      Equity Research Analyst at Deutsche Bank
    • Nathan Bolanos
      Life Sciences Equity Research Associate at UBS
    • Madeline Mollman
      Senior Associate and Equity Research Analyst of Life Science Tools and Diagnostics at Wolfe Research
    • Matt Stanton
      Equity Analyst at Jefferies
    • Ricki Levitus
      Equity Research Associate of Life Sciences Tools and Diagnostics at Guggenheim
    • Tom Peterson
      Senior Research Associate at Baird
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