Maravai LifeSciences Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript

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Provided by Quartr
February 25, 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Positive Sentiment: The company returned to positive adjusted EBITDA in Q4 with $0.536M, exceeded its cost-savings target (now > $65M annualized), and made a voluntary $50M debt repayment in Q1 2026 to reduce interest expense.
  • Positive Sentiment: 2026 guidance targets meaningful improvement — revenue of $200M–$210M (up 8%–13%) and adjusted EBITDA of $18M–$20M, with forecasted ~1,200 bps gross margin expansion and ~13% lower operating expenses.
  • Positive Sentiment: Commercial and product momentum at TriLink and Cygnus — strong demand for GMP consumables and CDMO services, early traction for ModTail and mRNA Builder, > $1.2M of GMP enzyme orders in hand for 2026, and Cygnus’s high-margin HCP kits plus growing MockV/MachV services expanding analytical offerings.
  • Negative Sentiment: GAAP results remain weak due to non-cash charges — Q4 GAAP net loss was $63M (including a $25.8M intangible impairment and $12.1M restructuring), full-year GAAP loss $230.8M, and Q4 operating cash outflow was $22.8M, with long-term debt of $294.2M before the voluntary repayment.
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Earnings Conference Call
Maravai LifeSciences Q4 2025
00:00 / 00:00

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Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your continued patience. Your meeting will begin shortly. If you need assistance at any time today, please press star 0 and a member of our team will be happy to help you. Again, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your continued patience. Your meeting will begin shortly. Again, if you do need assistance at any time today, please press star 0 and a member of our team will be happy to help you.

Operator

Hello and welcome everyone joining today's Maravai LifeSciences Q4-2025 results earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, you will have the opportunity to ask questions during the question and answer session. To register to ask a question at any time, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad. Please note this call is being recorded. We are standing by if you should need any assistance. It is now my pleasure to turn the meeting over to Debra Hart. Please go ahead.

Debra Hart
Debra Hart
Head of Investor Relations at Maravai LifeSciences

Good afternoon, everyone. Thanks for joining us on our fourth quarter and year-end 2025 earnings call. The press release and slides that accompany today's call are posted on our website and available at investors.maravai.com. As you can see from the agenda on slide two, our CEO, Bernd Brust, will provide a business update, and our CFO, Rajesh Asarpota, will review our financial results. Dr. Chanfeng Zhao, our Chief Scientific Officer, will join us for our Q&A session. Turning to slide three, I'd like to note that we have renamed our two reportable segments from Nucleic Acid Production and Biologic Safety Testing to TriLink and Cygnus, respectively. This change is to better align with our brands and internal operating terminology.

Debra Hart
Debra Hart
Head of Investor Relations at Maravai LifeSciences

There have been no changes to the composition of our reportable segments, the nature of the products and services offered, or the manner in which we evaluate the company's operating performance or allocate resources. This change is nomenclature only and does not impact our segment composition, financial results, or historical comparability. Throughout today's call, we will be referring to our two segments by this updated terminology. Management will make forward-looking statements and refer to GAAP and non-GAAP financial measures during today's call. It is possible that actual results could differ from expectations. We refer you to slide four 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 reconciling schedules to our investor website.

Debra Hart
Debra Hart
Head of Investor Relations at Maravai LifeSciences

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 Bernd.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us. After assuming the CEO role last June and implementing the restructuring actions we announced last August, the management team and I were clear on our priorities: simplify the business, improve operational execution, increase customer interaction, and deliver better financial results. We are doing exactly that. Let's turn to our financial results on slide five. Today, we reported full-year revenue of $185.7 million, exceeding guidance by about $700,000. Total Q4 revenue was $49.9 million, excluding the $14.3 million comparison from high-volume CleanCap sales in Q4 2024, revenue grew 18%.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

Growth was driven by strong performance in GMP consumables and CDMO services at TriLink, and by core customer demand for wholesale protein kits at Cygnus, with all of our top five customers increasing their HCP kit purchases during the quarter. Raj will walk through the full year and fourth quarter results in more detail, but I would like to highlight a key milestone this quarter. We demonstrated the leverage of our new operating model by delivering positive adjusted EBITDA of just over $500,000 in Q4. This represents an improvement of approximately $11 million sequentially from Q3. This marks the company's first return to positive adjusted EBITDA in four quarters. We achieved this well ahead of our internal expectations.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

The improvement was driven by disciplined execution across the organization, including exceeding the $50 million in cost-saving targets we set as part of the restructuring, coupled with stronger revenue and more favorable product mix. I want to thank our entire team for their efforts over the second half of 2025. We believe the company is now positioned to return to full-year revenue growth, deliver positive adjusted EBITDA, and positive cash flow in 2026. Let me briefly highlight what we are doing differently and how our operational changes are delivering improved results. First, our commercial execution. We have materially increased our direct engagement with customers at TriLink, positioning CleanCap as the product of choice and as part of a broader portfolio that includes our enzymes, oligos, and our newly released ModTail product.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

This reflects our strategy to expand TriLink beyond capping reagents and deepen our role across the full mRNA and gene-based therapeutic workflow, from early discovery through clinical development and into commercialization. By engaging earlier and across more components of the workflow, we increase our opportunity per program and strengthen our position as a long-term strategic supplier. A good example is our upcoming launch of GMP enzymes next quarter. Based on the commercial team's improved customer engagement, we are already seeing strong demand, with more than $1.2 million of GMP enzymes orders in hand for 2026. This illustrates the model. We support customers in discovery with research-grade consumables and services, and as their programs advance into clinical trials, we are positioned to transition with them to GMP-grade supply. In discovery, mRNA Builder is enabling earlier, higher-value engagement with our research customers.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

mRNA Builder is TriLink's AI and computer-aided design and ordering platform that simplifies designing optimized mRNA. Customers upload their gene of interest, and the platform guides them through the design of a high-performance mRNA construct. This platform is increasingly becoming embedded in customer workflows, as evidenced by direct customer feedback and repeat usage. As these discovery programs advance, this naturally supports pull-through of our GMP portfolio. Few competitors can offer this continuity from discovery through commercialization, and that continuity is a meaningful differentiator for us. Operationally, we have reduced fixed costs, centralized operations, and made the business far less sensitive to volume fluctuations. We now have clear ownership and accountability, removed functional silos, and improved the speed of decision making. We have implemented additional automation to improve efficiency and consistency across the organization, and our new automated EU site allows us to quickly supply screening for the European market.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

These are structural, sustainable, and scalable improvements. Combined with our technical record, regulatory credibility, and reputation for high-quality supply, these changes further reinforce TriLink's position as a partner of choice. From an R&D perspective, we are prioritizing investments in the highest return opportunities across mRNA, cell and gene therapy, and the biologic safety testing business. Products introduced in the second half of 2025 are already showing strong traction, our development roadmap is focused on areas where we can most clearly differentiate our capabilities and best serve our customers' needs. We have a robust pipeline of NPIs planned for 2026. Our recently launched ModTail technology continues to see strong early adoption, generating over a half million dollars in 2025, an unusually strong start for a newly introduced consumable in our market.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

We have already surpassed that level in 2026 year-to-date bookings, with engagement across several large pharma companies. Importantly, early customer data and our own internal studies demonstrate improved protein expression and extended duration of expression, both critical attributes for the next generation RNA therapeutics. We are also investing in additional capabilities at Cygnus. During the quarter, we expanded our mass spec infrastructure to increase capacity and broaden our analytical service offerings. This positions us to offer services that provide drug developers with a full understanding of the host cell protein in drug substances, ultimately leading to increased patient safety and product stability. We view analytical services as a strategic growth lever for Cygnus, complementing our existing HCP and ELISA kit business.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

We also continue to invest in our MockV product line for viral clearance prediction, as we see quarter-on-quarter, year-on-year growth driven by increased market penetration and encouraging regulatory feedback. Taken together, our commercial execution, operational discipline, and focused R&D enable faster decision making, improved responsiveness, and altogether, a strong foundation for long-term, durable growth and profitability. In addition to our improved internal execution, let me share some of what frames my optimism for 2026 on slide eight. The broader tools and biotech environment appear to be stabilizing. Biopharma funding is showing signs of recovery, particularly in the private markets. Large pharma remains active and well-funded biotechs are advancing programs, while smaller players remain cautious. While academic and government funding remains muted, we have low exposure to those markets. Overall, we're seeing strong order volume and increased visibility.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

We are also seeing continued expansion in the number of companies pursuing mRNA and guide RNA programs globally, which, according to the Beacon RNA database, is now 809 companies, compared to 643 a year ago. That growth reflects sustained scientific and commercial interest in RNA-based approaches. As delivery technologies advance and pipelines broaden, both emerging biotech and established biopharma continues to invest in RNA platforms. At the same time, companies continue to prioritize capital and rationalize early-stage programs. Importantly, this has not resulted in a meaningful decline in overall clinical trial activity. Trial activity by phase remains stable, and we continue to see solid engagement across discovery, preclinical, and clinical development. TriLink currently works with about 250-300 companies on a regular basis, or roughly one-third of the companies pursuing mRNA and guide RNA programs.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

We believe with our newly released ModTail technology, we have an opportunity to penetrate additional customers and programs, regardless of capping methods. Finally, customer feedback suggests the FDA remains constructive in areas such as cell and gene therapy, particularly in rare disease and oncology, where expedited pathways continue to be utilized. While infectious disease vaccine development may face a more measured approach in the current U.S. environment, our exposure into vaccines is low and therapeutic programs continue to progress. What I'd like to leave you with is how confident I am that the fundamentals of this business are solid. We have leading technologies. We have long-standing customer relationships where we continue to build greater transparency and intimacy. We have deep scientific credibility. Now, all that's coupled with the right team and appropriate sized operations to execute.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

Now, I'll turn the call over to Raj for more details on the quarter and year-end results and our 2026 financial guidance.

Rajesh Asarpota
Rajesh Asarpota
EVP and CFO at Maravai LifeSciences

Thank you, Bernd. Let's turn to the Q4 financial results on slide 10. Revenue for the quarter was $49.9 million, compared to $56.6 million in Q4 2024. As Bernd noted, excluding $14.3 million of high-volume COVID GMP CleanCap sales in the prior-year quarter, revenue increased 18% year-over-year. As Deb mentioned at the start of the call, we have renamed our two reportable segments from Nucleic Acid Production and Biologics Safety Testing to TriLink and Cygnus, respectively. TriLink generated $34.6 million of revenue, down 17% year-over-year. Excluding the $14.3 million COVID CleanCap comp in Q4 2024, TriLink base revenue grew 25% year-over-year, driven by GMP consumables and CDMO services. Cygnus revenue was $15.3 million, up 4% versus last year.

Rajesh Asarpota
Rajesh Asarpota
EVP and CFO at Maravai LifeSciences

I'll discuss segment results and profitability a little later in the call. Revenues by customer type in Q4 were 31% biopharma, 29% life science and diagnostics, 4% academia, 11% CRO, CMO, CDMO, and 25% distributors. Revenue by geography in Q4 was 55% North America, 15% EMEA, 21% Asia Pacific, excluding China, 8% in China, and 1% Latin and Central America. Turning to slide 11, our GAAP net loss before non-controlling interest was $63 million for the fourth quarter of 2025. This included a $25.8 million non-cash, intangible asset impairment charge related to TriLink and $12.1 million of non-cash restructuring charges, including lease unwind costs. This compares to a GAAP net loss before non-controlling interest of $46.1 million in Q4 2024.

Rajesh Asarpota
Rajesh Asarpota
EVP and CFO at Maravai LifeSciences

For the full year, GAAP net loss was $230.8 million, compared to a loss of $259.6 million for 2024. Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP measure, was positive $536 thousand for Q4, above our expectations, driven by efficiency of initiating our cost restructuring actions and stronger revenue. This compares to negative $1.1 million in Q4 2024. For the full year, adjusted EBITDA was negative $31.2 million, versus $35.9 million for 2024. Moving to slide 12 and EPS. Basic and diluted loss per share in Q4 was $0.24, compared to a loss of $0.18 per share in Q4 2024. Adjusted EPS was a loss of $0.04, compared to a loss of $0.06 last year.

Rajesh Asarpota
Rajesh Asarpota
EVP and CFO at Maravai LifeSciences

For the year, basic and diluted loss per share was $0.90, versus a loss of $1.05 in 2024. Adjusted fully diluted EPS, a non-GAAP measure, was a loss of $0.29 per share, versus a loss of $0.10 in the prior year. Advancing to the balance sheet, cash flow, and other financial metrics on slide 13. We ended the year with $216.9 million in cash and $294.2 million in long-term debt. Cash used in operations in Q4 was $22.8 million, including $3.6 million related to restructuring. Depreciation and amortization was $12.4 million. Net interest expense was $4.2 million. Stock-based compensation and non-cash charge was $3.9 million for the quarter. During Q1 2026, we made a voluntary $50 million debt repayment using cash on hand.

Rajesh Asarpota
Rajesh Asarpota
EVP and CFO at Maravai LifeSciences

As a result, both cash and total debt were reduced by $50 million from these year-end numbers. We believe this was a prudent step to reduce ongoing interest expense. Next to Slide 14 and the discussion of segment performance. TriLink revenue was $34.6 million in Q4, representing 69% of total revenue. Excluding the $14.3 million COVID CleanCap comp in the prior year quarter, base revenue grew 25%, driven by GMP consumables and CDMO services. TriLink generated $936,000 of adjusted EBITDA in Q4, returning to positive adjusted EBITDA for the first time since Q4 2024. For the full year, TriLink revenue was $119.8 million, or 64% of total revenue, with adjusted EBITDA of -$23.1 million. Excluding high-volume CleanCap revenue, TriLink revenue declined 8% for the year.

Rajesh Asarpota
Rajesh Asarpota
EVP and CFO at Maravai LifeSciences

Cygnus revenue was $15.3 million in Q4, up 4% year-over-year and representing 31% of total revenue. Growth was driven by continued demand for HCP kits, particularly from our core customers. Cygnus delivered $10.2 million of adjusted EBITDA in Q4, for a 66.7% margin. For the full year, Cygnus revenue increased 5% to $66 million, with adjusted EBITDA of $44.2 million and a 67% margin. Corporate shared services expense impacting adjusted EBITDA was $10.6 million in Q4, down $2.8 million sequentially. These expenses include HR, finance, legal, IT, and public company costs. Please turn to slide 15.

Rajesh Asarpota
Rajesh Asarpota
EVP and CFO at Maravai LifeSciences

As Bernd mentioned, we are ahead of our previously announced target of greater than $50 million annualized reduction in expenses and are now estimating savings of greater than $65 million. We continue to identify additional opportunities to streamline operations and improve profitability. Let's discuss our financial expectations for 2026 on slide 16. We expect total revenue of $200 million-$210 million, representing growth of 8%-13% over 2025. We expect TriLink to grow low double digits at the midpoint, driven by double-digit growth in GMP consumables and stabilization in Discovery. Cygnus is expected to grow low to mid single digits year-over-year. We expect full year adjusted EBITDA of $18 million-$20 million, representing an improvement of $50 million-$52 million over 2025, primarily from improvements in our TriLink segment.

Rajesh Asarpota
Rajesh Asarpota
EVP and CFO at Maravai LifeSciences

We expect gross margin expansion of approximately 1,200 basis points year-over-year, driven by our restructuring actions, cost initiatives, and product mix, as we expect greater revenue contributions from TriLink GMP consumables. Total operating expenses are expected to decline approximately 13%. G&A expenses are expected to decline approximately 18%, and sales and marketing should decline approximately 13%. R&D is expected to be modestly up as we continue to fund new product innovation. To help you with your modeling, here are a few additional expectations behind the guide. Interest expense, net of interest income, $15 million-$17 million. Depreciation and amortization of $50 million-$52 million. Stock-based compensation of $26 million-$28 million. As is fully converted share count of approximately 261 million shares. Net capital expenditures of $4 million-$6 million.

Rajesh Asarpota
Rajesh Asarpota
EVP and CFO at Maravai LifeSciences

Finally, I'd like to provide an update on internal controls and the securities class action litigation. As you'll see, when we file our 10-K this week, we have completed the implementation of our remediation plan and enhanced the design and operation of our controls to address the previously identified material weaknesses. Those weaknesses related to controls over our revenue process, as well as controls around key inputs and assumptions used in determining the fair value of our reporting units in the quantitative goodwill impairment assessment. To remediate these matters, we strengthened controls over period and revenue recognition and pricing approvals, enhanced the review and documentation of key inputs and assumptions used in the goodwill impairment analysis, and provided additional training to control owners.

Rajesh Asarpota
Rajesh Asarpota
EVP and CFO at Maravai LifeSciences

I'm pleased to report that the United States District Court for the Southern District of California dismissed in full the securities class action lawsuits against Maravai and certain of our former executives. I want to thank the team for their focused work in resolving these matters. Our fourth quarter reflects the benefits of the actions we have taken. Sequential revenue growth, positive adjusted EBITDA, and continued cost discipline. We're entering 2026 with a leaner cost structure, improved operating leverage and clear priorities. We remain focused on execution, driving revenue, and continued margin expansion. I'll now turn the call back to the operator for Q&A.

Operator

Thank you. If you'd like to ask a question, press star one on your keypad. To leave the queue at any time, press star two. We do ask that you limit yourself to one question and one follow-up. Once again, that is star one, if you'd like to ask a question. We'll take our first question from Matt Stanton with Jefferies. Please go ahead.

Matt Stanton
Matt Stanton
VP and Equity Research Analyst at Jefferies

Hey, thanks. Maybe on the commentary on visibility improving and the color on slide eight, you talked about strong order volume. Is it fair to say orders are tracking, you know, kind of ahead of what you're guiding on revenues for 2026 on year-on-year growth? Maybe just, you know, de-risking a bit or leaving a bit of upside. Is there any more color you can give in terms of order and funnel growth tied to the strong order volume? If yes, you know, maybe spike out some of the opportunity where you see the most areas of upside as you move through 2026 here. Thanks.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

Thanks, Matt. This is Bernd. We shared in our last earnings call that, you know, there's a little lumpiness, of course, in this business, right? In a business that's, you know, $200 million in revenue and our average order volume is fairly high. Average order cycle is about six months, so it's hard to get a true outlook on what happens in, for the full year. We're certainly, I think, trying to be somewhat conservative as to how we set ourselves up for the future here. Specific to your question, order volumes are materially higher so far than they were last year at this period of time. That's a good sign, obviously.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

Where we see that specifically is in the TriLink world, in our GMP consumables, as well as our larger order sizes in Discovery, right? We look at our business in Discovery into sort of two categories, orders under average $15,000, where we assume no salespeople are involved, and orders over 15, that does require usually some kind of sales involvement. Where we're seeing material growth is in these larger orders in Discovery alongside with GMP. Order volumes are great, and we feel very, very confident about where we are with our forecasts for the year.

Matt Stanton
Matt Stanton
VP and Equity Research Analyst at Jefferies

... Thanks. Maybe just on the GMP consumables, you talked about the strength in Q4, the strength in orders. Can you talk a little bit more about, is that tied to, you know, a few programs moving further through the clinic? Is it selling, you know, more products into the GMP consumable ecosystem? Just talk about maybe some of the underlying demand factors underpinning the GMP consumable strength you've seen. Thanks.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

Yeah, it's really a broad set of customers. There's really not one customer that stands out that says this is where we're seeing all of our growth. I think that's the beauty, actually, about the business at the moment, where certainly in the COVID years, great revenues, but from a very small number of programs. The number of programs is quite significant at the moment. Yeah, we feel good about the depth of our customers that we are currently interacting with.

Matt Stanton
Matt Stanton
VP and Equity Research Analyst at Jefferies

Great. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. We'll take our next question from Subbu Nambi with Guggenheim. Your line is now open.

Subbu Nambi
Subbu Nambi
Senior Analyst at Guggenheim Securities

Hey, guys. Thank you for taking my question. First one is on the gross margin expansion of 1,200 basis points from restructuring cost initiatives and product mix. Can you break out each of these buckets, if possible?

Rajesh Asarpota
Rajesh Asarpota
EVP and CFO at Maravai LifeSciences

Yeah, sure. We can, I can give you the details on the cost savings that we've outlined before. We talked about the $55 million that we previously mentioned, and now the actual gross margin expansion is going to be coming from the $65 million annualized savings. Again, I'd like to remind you that we captured about $3 million of that in Q3 and another $8 million in Q4. The $65 million in annualized cost savings basically resets the fixed cost base to create that margin lift on gross margin, which is independent of volume growth. There's additional expansion on gross margin that's going to come from mix, mainly from GMP consumables contribution and the operating leverage as we continue to expand revenue.

Subbu Nambi
Subbu Nambi
Senior Analyst at Guggenheim Securities

Thank you for that. On high level, AI's role in drug discovery, development, and manufacturing is the investor focus of late. How is Maravai using AI, either at the Flanders side, in R&D, or otherwise, to generate efficiency?

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

I'm sorry. The question was, how is AI driving efficiencies in the business?

Subbu Nambi
Subbu Nambi
Senior Analyst at Guggenheim Securities

Yes.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

Yeah, I think we're implementing this in various areas of the organization. You heard us talk about mRNA Builder that we went live with, I think it was the third quarter of last year. It's really an automated platform that we acquired through the Officinae Bio acquisition early last year, that allows customers, without really any human intervention, to upload their DNA construct and then create an optimized RNA construct from there. I think so far since we've been live, something like 70 or so orders have been going through that system. It's gradually picking up. That's probably the biggest involvement of AI that we have at the moment. I can't speak to whether we use that in the CDMO world. I don't believe so.

Subbu Nambi
Subbu Nambi
Senior Analyst at Guggenheim Securities

Got it. Thank you so much, guys.

Operator

Thank you. We'll take our next question from Matt Larew with William Blair. Please go ahead.

Matt Larew
Matt Larew
Research Analyst at William Blair

Good afternoon. Congrats on the update. It seems like you've turned a corner here. I wanted to ask about the guide for the year. You know, just given Q3 and Q4, you had some lumpiness with some of the CDMO builds. You know, a number of larger peers have characterized perhaps a softer first quarter, though they're optimistic about the build for the year. Just curious if there's anything you'd call out, either from a prior year comp or, you know, an expected order conversion that might affect pacing in the first quarter in particular?

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

Well, listen, we're optimistic on Q1. As we shared, we're optimistic on the year as well. On the top line, there's really not any serious negative comps. Obviously, we comped out all of the COVID hits that we comped against 2024 and 2025. When you look at the orders that we are currently seeing in the business, it's a real, quite a diverse set of customers across the portfolio of TriLink, and obviously, Cygnus continues to run at their sort of mid-single-digit revenue levels as well. We really don't look at this as a negative or positive comp in Q1. I think if you look at this year, probably Q3 last year was pretty tough on the GMP world, we'll see what that means this year on Q3.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

Certainly as we look at the first half of the year here, you know, we shared with, I think, the group here in September that we were expecting somewhere between $10 million and $20 million worth of COVID caps in 2026, specifically the first half. We still expect that to happen in the first half, so that is the one positive comp that you'll see in the first half. Other than that, I think it's true strength of customer spending.

Rajesh Asarpota
Rajesh Asarpota
EVP and CFO at Maravai LifeSciences

I think, the one thing that, again, where we I think we spoke about this in the previous call in terms of our commercial engagement and how that's giving us better visibility into, you know, the GMP consumables world. That continues to happen. On the strength of that, we've seen, you know, Q1 coming in relatively strong, and that's going to kind of continue through the balance of the year.

Matt Larew
Matt Larew
Research Analyst at William Blair

Okay. You know, the, cost reduction program came in ahead of schedule, and I think the way you guide it, OpEx is good to see in terms of R&D getting dollars, but finding efficiencies in other places. You know, prior to COVID, Maravai operated with EBITDA margins above 40%, though that was maybe largely as a private company, and I understand it's maybe not a perfect comp, but if you think about the midpoint of the guide this year, EBITDA margins being roughly 9% and where you expect to be in the future, obviously now you have a services portfolio, you're adding new products, you know, which we don't fully know the margins of. Where do you think margins can go long term?

Matt Larew
Matt Larew
Research Analyst at William Blair

Understanding that long term is maybe undefinable in terms of timeline at this point, but just in terms of the structure of the business and the kind of products and services you're offering, where do you think you can get over time?

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

I think you're going to get your margins up truly through higher product sales, right? When you look at the organization today, you have a fairly complex GMP operating model here that, you know, you did God knows how much volume during COVID that sits in the same infrastructure we still have. We can absorb a large number of other GMP orders without really increasing our cost structure, with the exception of raw materials and maybe a little bit of labor. The natural margin increases, I think are going to come purely from revenue growth over the outlying years here.

Operator

Thank you. We'll take our next question from Matt Hewitt with Craig-Hallum. Your line is now open.

Matt Hewitt
Matt Hewitt
Senior Research Analyst at Craig-Hallum

Good afternoon. Thanks for taking the questions. Maybe first up, regarding the restructuring, you got through that earlier than expected. Should we anticipate that the, you know, expense lines kind of have reset at this point, maybe a little bit below the Q4 numbers for sales in general and all that, and kind of show some normalized growth, core growth, if you will, over the course of the year? Or is there still yet one more step down after Q1?

Rajesh Asarpota
Rajesh Asarpota
EVP and CFO at Maravai LifeSciences

Okay. Again, going back to the macro level, the $65 million in expense reductions that we've outlined, those expense categories haven't changed. Some have moved a little bit towards being more favorable. You know, our labor expense profile is going to remain the same. Our facilities is going to essentially remain the same. Our controllable expense is going to be down a lot more than we anticipated. Just by the account types, if you look at our COGS profile, that's going to essentially remain the same. On the OpEx side, we're going to get a lot more out of G&A. Like we said, we're going to invest a little bit on R&D, sales and marketing is going to essentially remain the same.

Rajesh Asarpota
Rajesh Asarpota
EVP and CFO at Maravai LifeSciences

There will be another modest drop in Q1, though, I think, to get to your question directly.

Matt Hewitt
Matt Hewitt
Senior Research Analyst at Craig-Hallum

Got it. Thank you. Then maybe a separate question. The FDA recently provided some new draft guidance regarding some of your markets. I'm just curious what your thoughts were on that draft guidance, and more importantly, you know, when do you think that you could maybe start to see some benefit from that?

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

Yeah, I don't think we have internally looked at that very closely. We don't have a ton of exposure, on where that dialogue sits at the moment. I don't think we have a clear point of view on that at this stage.

Matt Hewitt
Matt Hewitt
Senior Research Analyst at Craig-Hallum

Understood. All right. Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Kathryn Schulte with Baird. Your line is now open.

Josh Heinen
Josh Heinen
Research Analyst at Baird

Hey, guys, this is Josh on for Kathryn. Thanks for taking my question. You mentioned that, you know, working with around 250-300 customers within the mRNA ecosystem, was just wondering, you know, where kind of market shares shook out between clinical and preclinical customers, and how you kind of characterize recent market share dynamics there? Just lastly, how do you kind of feel about current mRNA pipeline trends heading into 2026? Thanks.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

Yeah. You know, I think we assume about a third market share, right, of an mRNA customers out there. It's not always that easy to talk about programs because we don't always know how many programs a customer is running at a given point in time. But I think if you look at our GMP revenues, which Raj, which are this year forecasted at what number, do you remember?

Rajesh Asarpota
Rajesh Asarpota
EVP and CFO at Maravai LifeSciences

GMP consumables.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

It's somewhere around.

Rajesh Asarpota
Rajesh Asarpota
EVP and CFO at Maravai LifeSciences

Forty-three.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

$45 million, right? Something like that. That suggests that your discovery business is still, you know, larger than our GMP business. I would say that today in the GMP world, I don't know, it's a third of our revenue, something like that. We're seeing the fastest growth happening there. That certainly to us, indicates that you're going to continue to see either more programs coming into the GMP world or programs progressing and by our higher volumes.

Josh Heinen
Josh Heinen
Research Analyst at Baird

Great. Throughout 2025, we saw a lot of policy headwinds around areas like mRNA, cell gene therapy, and Most-Favored-Nation. You're heading into 2026, how are you feeling about the broader policy backdrop here? How does this inform the improved visibility that you're seeing across the business?

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

Yeah. I think a lot of the policy has been driven around vaccines, right? We really don't have a ton of exposure in that area any longer, now that we've washed through the COVID comps from 2024. But when you look at just customer behavior and, you know, we're a consumables provider, and we're directly dependent, of course, on customers doing either mRNA research or trials. We're starting to see more and more traction coming from our broader customer base, not just in GMP, but also in the discovery world. That tends to be the best sign, of course, in that you have to assume when you have larger discovery orders coming in, that some of those will move into a GMP clinical trial world at some point.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

The fact that, again, discovery orders at larger size are becoming more and more, I think, prominent at the moment, is a very good sign where we think the GMP world will lead into.

Operator

Thank you. We'll go next to Justin Bowers with Deutsche Bank. Your line is now open.

Justin Bowers
Justin Bowers
Equity Research Analyst at Deutsche Bank

Hi, good afternoon. Sticking with GMP, can you give us a sense of what that how much revenue that generated in 2025? As we think about 2026, excluding the COVID revenue, is there any seasonality that we should take into consideration for TriLink?

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

I don't think there's seasonality necessarily. That's kind of the interesting part about this business. The lumpiness exists, based on these order sizes, and really, until you get some of these programs to become a commercial, you know, you have changes from certainly discovery into GMP. You have certainly movement from phase one to two to three. Some programs don't make it out of certain trial levels. The lumpiness that we see in the business is really not seasonal. It's purely tied to really how successful these clinical trials are. Yeah, the nature of our business is such that because these orders are fairly large, as they shift between programs, they will likely shift between time as well.

Justin Bowers
Justin Bowers
Equity Research Analyst at Deutsche Bank

Understood. Just a quick follow-up that, what was GMP consumables in 2025? Part two of that would be, I think, you know, last year you talked about maybe some, you know, maybe sharing space or thinking about some alternative revenue generation, activities in Flanders, and just curious if there's an update on those initiatives.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

Well, on the facility front, we have one of our Flanders sites is our CDMO business, and that's fully occupied by that. The other Flanders site, currently, we don't occupy. We have closed that facility. If we find somebody to take it over, we will deal with that as at that point, but we're not looking for incremental revenues necessarily coming from that piece. That has been all addressed, I think, in our accounting world as well. We don't take those into our EBITDA lines any longer. On the question around GMP consumables, maybe, Raj, you have those numbers?

Rajesh Asarpota
Rajesh Asarpota
EVP and CFO at Maravai LifeSciences

Yeah, we kind of don't break that out completely, but, you know, if you look at the GMP and CDMO business combined, that's in the mid-thirties.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

Last year.

Justin Bowers
Justin Bowers
Equity Research Analyst at Deutsche Bank

Okay, got it.

Rajesh Asarpota
Rajesh Asarpota
EVP and CFO at Maravai LifeSciences

Last year.

Justin Bowers
Justin Bowers
Equity Research Analyst at Deutsche Bank

Thanks.

Rajesh Asarpota
Rajesh Asarpota
EVP and CFO at Maravai LifeSciences

Yep.

Justin Bowers
Justin Bowers
Equity Research Analyst at Deutsche Bank

Thanks so much. I'll jump back in queue.

Operator

Thank you.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

by the way, 40, I'm sorry, just for clarification, the 43 I mentioned a minute ago for GMP consumables, that excludes CDMO.

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from Doug Schenkel with Wolfe Research. Your line is now open.

Doug Schenkel
Doug Schenkel
Managing Director at Wolfe Research

Good afternoon. Thank you for taking my questions. The first on APAC, the second on MockV. Starting on APAC, as a percentage of revenue, APAC increased pretty meaningfully in the fourth quarter compared to the third quarter. I think you said China was stable, so it does seem to imply that there was a pretty big pickup in Asia ex China. Am I thinking about that right? If so, what drove that change, and is this a trend that you expect to continue into 2026? Then on MockV, you called out demand as a driver of growth in the quarter. How has that been trending, and how do you expect that to contribute in 2026?

Doug Schenkel
Doug Schenkel
Managing Director at Wolfe Research

I'm just wondering if over time, that could be a contributor to driving, overall Cygnus growth, up above the mid-single-digit construct. Thank you.

Rajesh Asarpota
Rajesh Asarpota
EVP and CFO at Maravai LifeSciences

I'll start with the GMP, like, in Asia Pacific in Q4 was driven by two large GMP orders. They were kind of tied to our ongoing programs and partnerships and not kind of the one-time events. you know, we view this as a sustainable kind of event and reflective of the ongoing improving program momentum we have, and it's not a one-off event. That was what drove the APAC growth. What was your second question again? Sorry.

Operator

MockV.

Rajesh Asarpota
Rajesh Asarpota
EVP and CFO at Maravai LifeSciences

We did see MockV growth, and we think that product has shown tremendous kind of runway from last year to this year, from 2024-2025, and we see continued kind of growth on that product line within Cygnus for currently.

Chanfeng Zhao
Chanfeng Zhao
SVP and Chief Scientific Officer at Maravai LifeSciences

If I also may add-

Rajesh Asarpota
Rajesh Asarpota
EVP and CFO at Maravai LifeSciences

Sure.

Chanfeng Zhao
Chanfeng Zhao
SVP and Chief Scientific Officer at Maravai LifeSciences

MockV. Cygnus has supported several customers with their including MockV data in the customer's clinical trial application. The initial approach has been positive, received by our regulatory agency. The idea of MockV could potentially replace expensive, lengthy, viral clearance study, you know, which can really broaden our potential customer base.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

We think MockV has great potential runway here. I think it's a good indication of that. I'll also say, don't expect that to happen in three months. It's a longer cycle business, you know, short-term growth, I think the question was, how do we potentially look at Cygnus growing faster than sort of mid-single digits? I think certainly, you know, long-term MockV could be a player there. We've invested some more in services. We've brought another mass spec into the organization. I think you'll see some opportunity coming from there. I think you're right, Asia does have some opportunities that are potentially there for us to capitalize on.

Doug Schenkel
Doug Schenkel
Managing Director at Wolfe Research

Thank you again.

Chanfeng Zhao
Chanfeng Zhao
SVP and Chief Scientific Officer at Maravai LifeSciences

Thanks, guys.

Operator

Thank you. We'll take our last question from Matthew Parisi with KeyBanc Capital Markets. Your line is now open. Matthew Parisi, please check your mute function. Your line is now open.

Matthew Parisi
Matthew Parisi
Research Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets

Oh, hi, sorry. This is Matthew Parisi, on for Paul Knight at KeyBanc Capital Markets. Congrats on the great quarter. Quick question about the COVID CleanCap revenue. You mentioned that $10 million-$20 million will come in the first half. Can we assume that there'll be additional COVID CleanCap revenue in the second half?

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

No.

Rajesh Asarpota
Rajesh Asarpota
EVP and CFO at Maravai LifeSciences

No.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

I think we shared with all of you in Q4, that we expect $10 million-$20 million will be the total number for 2026, and we kind of look at that as the ongoing run rate in the following years as well. You should keep that number in as a guidance for the business. We expect this year, that all to come in the first half of the year.

Matthew Parisi
Matthew Parisi
Research Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets

All right. Thank you. Next would be kind of, you talked to the significant traction you're seeing in ModTail. I was wondering if you could talk to the traction you're seeing in the new IVT kits, and then, you had previously mentioned that you intend to launch new kits in 2026, and when could we potentially expect to see the launch of those kits?

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

Jianfeng, you want to answer that, or would you like me to?

Chanfeng Zhao
Chanfeng Zhao
SVP and Chief Scientific Officer at Maravai LifeSciences

Yeah. Yeah, we've, the ModTail, you know, we launched the mRNA service and the catalog mRNA. The data coming back from customers that they're very positive, and so they are starting asking, as Bernd mentioned, that we have large pharma companies using this technology, and as the positive data coming back, they are asking sort of a GMP-related question. You know, obviously, we'll be ready for GMP to meet the customer demand. For the IVT kit, you know, as you know, TriLink has been doing mRNA for many years, so we have deep knowledge in IVT CleanCaps. The kit is really well-received in the field.

Chanfeng Zhao
Chanfeng Zhao
SVP and Chief Scientific Officer at Maravai LifeSciences

We have over 100 kits ordered first four weeks, we see sequential growth from Q3 to Q4, we also see more adoption in the field. We also convert one major customer from competitor to use our kit. It's all good, we are going to launch more kit and a different version of kit to meet customer demand this year.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

The ModTail is an interesting product. I mean, it's still early days, obviously, but you know, the fact that we officially launched this in September through the commercial organization, you know, well over $1 million in orders already, and that's through Jianfeng's comment, service and some catalog mRNA. Feedback that's come back from customers have been quite impressive. We have a lot of confidence of this product becoming a big driver of revenue growth for our business in the years to come.

Matthew Parisi
Matthew Parisi
Research Analyst at KeyBanc Capital Markets

Thank you.

Operator

Thank you. At this time, there are no further questions in queue. I will now turn the meeting back to our presenters for any additional or closing remarks.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

Thank you. Thanks again, everybody, for dialing in, sticking with us. We know that, you know, we're still new in this organization. I think we are bringing it around very quickly. We are highly confident about the progress that we're making. You know, we got TriLink, certainly that's been stabilizing and positioned for growth in 2026. The fact that Cygnus now has hit its positive growth Q3 in a row is a great story, we are confident that's gonna have a great 2026 as well. You know, our cost savings, materially higher than we had initially planned, really without impacting the business, I think is an incredible sign for the organization. We're gonna see EBITDA growth. We're gonna see cash positive direction in 2026 again.

Bernd Brust
Bernd Brust
CEO at Maravai LifeSciences

We're leaner, we move faster, great interaction with our customers, and highly confident that we're gonna have a great 2026 here. Thanks again for your time and interest in the company, and we'll speak to you again in about a quarter. Thanks.

Operator

Thank you. T

Operator

his brings us to the end of today's meeting. We appreciate your time and participation. You may now disconnect.

Executives
    • Bernd Brust
      Bernd Brust
      CEO
    • Chanfeng Zhao
      Chanfeng Zhao
      SVP and Chief Scientific Officer
    • Debra Hart
      Debra Hart
      Head of Investor Relations
    • Rajesh Asarpota
      Rajesh Asarpota
      EVP and CFO
Analysts
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