All right, great. I think we'll get going here. My name's Matt Stanton. I'm on the LifeScience Tools and Diagnostics team here at Jefferies. Happy to have Maravai with us back at the conference this year, joining us from the company we have the CFO. Raj, thanks for being here this morning. Appreciate it.
Thank you, Matt.
Maybe just to kick off, you've been at the company, I think, about 5 months, new management team, a new CEO as well. We'd love to just kind of have you level set us on some of the actions the new team has taken here, and then we'd also love to hear a bit about what's on the docket the next 6 months.
Okay, great. I think I'll start by saying that what we found is that the foundation of the company is pretty solid right now. We've got leading technologies, long-standing customer relationships, scientific credibility, and just above all, talented teammates. We've been focused a lot since we got in around kind of restructuring, resizing the business to level set against a post-COVID environment, rather. We communicated that we have over $50 million in annualized expenses that we are removing from the business that comes through reduced headcount, rationalization of facilities, reducing CapEx, and other controllable expenses. What that's resulted in is a much kind of leaner organization. We've instilled financial discipline to ensure that every dollar we spend is going to result in a good outcome.
As we kind of look forward to the balance of this year and 2026, we are really kind of focused on returning the business to both revenue growth and positive EBITDA and cash flow generation.
Okay. Maybe just on guidance, you withdrew it on 2Q, which I think made a lot of sense given the changes with the new team. You reinstated guidance for the year here on 3Q, implies, I think, kind of like $49 million for 4Q. A bit of a step up. I think it's high teens sequentially here in 4Q. Maybe just talk about first your guidance philosophy more broadly, and then as it relates to 4Q, just some of the visibility or confidence in the ramp from 3Q.
Yeah. In the third quarter, as you mentioned, we did suspend guidance just to give us the time to actually get our arms around the business, do a strategic review, and feel good about how we were going to forecast the business. In the fourth quarter, and as we kind of exited the third quarter, which was down year over year, yet as we were doing the review, it kind of met our internal expectations. In the fourth quarter, we had a lot of CDMO orders and on the GMP side, a little bit of variability from a timing standpoint that led to the fall through in the fourth quarter, which is why we are seeing that significant step up in the fourth quarter. Our philosophy around guidance is more around ensuring that there are no surprises.
That's led to creating a new cadence in the business around bottom-up forecasting, kind of fueled by sales operations tools, business intelligence, and really thinking through product segmentation in terms of what really moves the needle, how do we deploy our sales capital. All those things have led to much better visibility into not just the balance of the year, but kind of even going into 2026 on how we feel about our order book and how we are going to project revenue outlook.
Okay. I think on the 3Q call, you guys called out kind of healthy October trends. I think that was across GMP consumables, TriLink, maybe some of that's related to the CDMO and order momentum. Just talk a little bit about what was underpinning that October momentum, and then also maybe just hit on, I think you're making some changes on the commercial side. Is there anything kind of the team's doing there that's helping drive some of this?
Yeah, you hit it. Like I said, in the third quarter, we saw some variability and spillover into the fourth quarter. That was part of it. We're also seeing biotech funding kind of improving, so that's a positive sign. We are cautiously optimistic on that front. On the commercial side, I'll give you a data point. What we did was a little bit of product segmentation and looked at orders under $25,000, which represents a long tail in our business, but yet is a very small percentage of our revenue. On the flip side, growth over orders over $25,000 really kind of moved the needle and represents about 60% of our revenue. That base of customers is fairly kind of identifiable in the sense that our sales team is now kind of focused on driving revenue with those customers.
We have really good visibility into their funnels. We've had a lot of communication with them. The whole sales team, the finance team, and the operations team closely kind of work together to ensure that we are getting what we need from them. That's kind of given us a lot of confidence going into the balance of the year and kind of what's looking like for 2026.
Maybe just on last thing on the commercial side, just have you or do you plan to tweak incentive comp at all around that, or is it more giving them tools and segmentation to help them kind of go at those different cohorts, or is there actually kind of tweaks you can make to the comp dynamics that will?
Yeah, no, I think our comp plan is very much kind of it's focused around kind of driving revenue. It is pretty simple. Not much has changed over there. Really, for us, it's giving the sales team the right tools, the business intelligence, and funnel management that they can work with. It is all about giving them good tools to make the right decisions and lead them to where the business is.
Okay. Maybe shifting over to new products. That was a big focus, I think, on the 3Q call. Correct me if I'm wrong. From the outside, it looks like there's a bit of a shift. You guys seem to be maybe targeting a handful of products that could be more impactful, more needle-moving than releasing 20 products, just to say you released 20 products. I guess just starting high level, is that correct of the view from the outside? Maybe talk about how you're approaching.
Yeah, no, that is the right way to characterize that. We want fewer products, more impactful ROI-based decisions. I'll give you a couple of examples. We introduced our ModTail technology. What that does is increases the durability of the mRNA protein expression and protects against degradation. The ModTail technology has really kind of taken off. Just last week, we shared there was a poster that AstraZeneca shared. Using our technology, they spoke about how that improves RNA therapeutics, genomic medicine, and other cell therapies. That was a very positive sign there. The other thing that does is this technology also enables us to work with customers that use enzymatic capping as well. That opens up the aperture on a whole kind of host of customers that we can go after now and target them. It's like a one-two punch there.
Along with that, on our discovery side, we have IVT kits. These are reagents that have oligos, NTPs, enzymes. For discovery customers, those kits, we continue to introduce and refine those. That is also on the docket for 2026. Last but not least, I talked earlier about the long tail of customers we have on the discovery side, where we have decided to use our mRNAB uilder, the e-commerce platform, to service those customers. That, again, enables us to get efficiencies on the discovery side while our sales team is kind of more focused on orders that move the needle.
Okay. Maybe just going back to the ModTail for a second, I think it's a little underappreciated, your point on kind of opening doors that maybe weren't there before. Can you just clarify, is that new customers that you really didn't work with at all, or is it existing customers but able to kind of open doors and go in with more products, broader portfolio?
Both. Both. I think it's our current customer base, but again, I want to emphasize that it also helps us on those that are using enzymatic capping. It kind of enables us to target those customers along with the base we already have. The CleanCap M6 is another product we had introduced recently. M6 and poly tail, very complementary to each other. It is a good technology.
Maybe just last on the IVT kits, it sounds like there's maybe kind of more to come. You can continue to kind of roll out additional kits. Should we expect more on that front over the coming quarters?
Yes.
Okay. Maybe shifting gears over to Cygnus. The BST business saw a solid quarter. It was up, I think, 7% in 3Q. It's been up nicely, mid-single digits here year-to-date. Can you just talk about what you're seeing from a demand basis in the BST business, whether that be by customer base or region?
Yeah. I think by region, like you said, we saw really good growth this past quarter, including double-digit growth in the Americas and in Europe. China was a little muted, but that was just a reflection of what happened in Q2 as we were navigating through tariffs. We have a key supplier there that was building up supplies, so that kind of impacted a little bit on China. Overall, that business is holding up really well. We continue to be excited about the MockV kits and our mass spec analytical services business. Those are driving some of the growth. This business kind of grows with the market, solid, mid-single digit grower. We expect as we start to get more innovation in there and MockV gets even more traction, that that business could accelerate into high single digits.
Yeah, that was kind of where I was going with the next question. I think historically, pre-COVID, that business was 10%+ type grower. Maybe part of that was the revenue base was a lot smaller back then. If we think about this as kind of tracking towards or close to kind of more bioprocessing type demand, is there an opportunity over the midterm for this to get kind of into that zip code?
Yeah. I mean, again, because we have such a dominant market share, we will continue to ensure that it grows with market. Beyond that, again, it's going to be a story with innovation. So MockV, it still has a long runway. It's a small base. And then our analytical services, that'll get us to those higher single digit growth rates eventually.
Okay. Maybe on MockV, I mean, I know it's pretty small today. Can you just remind us where you're seeing the most traction? Is it on the early stage clinical? Can you move it along later stage in the pipeline? Where is the demand coming from today? Just as we think about that over the next few years, I mean, is there an opportunity that that MockV product is tens of millions of dollars in a couple of years here?
Yeah, I think early stage, but also, honestly, since I joined the business, I've asked this question on how much runway does this product have. We are actually doing some analysis right now that can tell us how big this opportunity can be. We certainly think it's in the tens of millions, but we need to do some more kind of follow-up on that.
Maybe just to put a bow on MockV, maybe just hit on real quick why it's differentiated, why people come to MockV versus some of the other offerings within the broader kind of viral clearance market.
I think just because of how the efficacy and how well that works through the chain, it's been specced. I believe as you, like the regulatory authorities, when there is MockV associated with any of the product chain, it automatically is like a certificate of approval. It is just for people that want their stuff to proceed quickly, they use MockV. It is just getting a lot of traction.
Okay. Maybe going back to China, you hit on it a little bit earlier, not hugely significant for your business, but I think kind of like mid-single digits of overall mix. Maybe just talk a little bit about what you're seeing in China broadly. You talked about maybe some timing, orders, quarter to quarter. Just taking a step back, what are you guys kind of seeing in China? I think some of the bioprocessing companies have started to sound a little bit better around China demand, call it mid-2026 onward. Maybe just talk about kind of higher level, how you're thinking about China.
Yeah. I mean, China is a small part of our overall business, like you said, about mid-single digits. And primarily on the BST side. On the nucleic acid product side, it's pretty small right now. But China is key for BST. We have an incredible relationship with the supplier we have there. I think that market is going to grow. We feel pretty good about it.
Can you just remind us that we've seen a real string of out-licensing deals from multinationals in China? Does that impact you? Could that be a potential tailwind? How do we think about where that plays out, how it maybe benefits you guys?
We are working on that. That is definitely going to be a tailwind. That is part of the China growth story.
Okay. On the CDMO side, this is an area you've added some capacity over the last few years. Maybe just talk about in terms of order demand trends, what you're seeing there. I think you recently talked about seeing kind of an increase in supported programs, but also the average batch size. Is that tied to programs you're supporting moving through the clinic or larger later stage programs coming into your services or maybe both?
Yeah, absolutely. I think as these programs kind of move to clinical, we're seeing a larger usage of that product. On the CDMO side, we have a small base of customers that are very much what they like is our technical expertise. They love the responsiveness that Maravai provides. What's happening there is we are getting a glimpse into their programs, and we are kind of going along the journey with them. The CDMO business is pretty well defined right now. Let me address the capacity piece. You're right. We built up a ton of capacity over the COVID period. We are now, I think, with some kind of mandate on onshoring with the current administration, thinking through optionality on how that facility capacity can be utilized by either American or European manufacturers.
That's not part of our outlook in terms of any upside, but it's certainly something that we're looking at. We also don't want to kind of lock ourselves out in case we need some of that capacity. We want to be kind of balanced about it. To the extent that we can help people onshore, we're certainly looking at that from a business development standpoint.
Would you say, I think as it relates to reshoring, onshoring, there's still some debate about how much is incremental, but it does feel like the idea that service providers, CDMOs could see it first with existing capacity versus greenfield and brownfield builds. Would you kind of agree with that statement? Are you seeing kind of conversations with folks, and it's, I guess, easiest to go into a CDMO than building a greenfield facility?
I completely agree with you.
Okay. On the vaccine-related CleanCap, you guys came out last quarter, kind of said penciling in $10 million-$20 million per year in 2026, but then also beyond. Just maybe talk about why $10 million-$20 million is the right number, what gave you comfort there. And then as we think about kind of opportunities for that to maybe move higher tied to certain aspects, how should we think about that going forward?
Yeah. The reason we communicated that range is as we looked into 2026 and what we're seeing for the balance of this year is a reach out from our customers in terms of placing orders. There's a replenishment factor that's built in now as inventories bleed down. As kind of the COVID stuff moves from pandemic to an endemic nature, we are seeing a demand kind of come in right now. Based on the outlook that we have for 2026, including we do have a binding order right now and a few customers reaching out to us, we feel that that range in the short term is pretty good. We're now treating that as part of our GMP business, which can be variable, but at least we know that that range is pretty good in the short term.
As and when it starts to grow beyond that, we'll certainly communicate it. Right now, we feel that range is pretty good. It won't be called out as an outlier. It's just going to become part of our GMP.
Yeah, that was going to be my next question. Just to be clear on when you give 2026 guidance, that number will be an overall number. There will not be including or excluding the 10 or 20. Is that the right way? Everything's folded into it.
Exactly. It's kind of folded into the business. It just becomes part of our base.
Okay. All right. On 2026, sticking with that theme, I mean, you talked about orders in hand today or as of a few weeks ago when you did the call were higher than orders in hand at that time last year, right? Maybe just talk about the magnitude of that. I guess just more flavor for us. Are those orders that are non-cancelable? Is there some risk to them? Is it visibility out a quarter for all of 2026? How do we think about that comment? Obviously, it sounds positive as a leading indicator, but how do we think about that?
Yeah. It varies within portfolio, but all the things that we touched upon, right? Whether it is our product segmentation, how we're deploying capital, the funding environment, and kind of just controlling some of that variability has given us a lot of insight into how this is playing out. We have a lot more visibility with our customers right now. We think, again, it kind of varies, but we see a quarter and even up to 9 months for certain product lines. I wouldn't say anything can be cancelable, but chances of that are not that great. We see pretty good. We have a high degree of confidence that what we're seeing is going to materialize.
Okay. Maybe just last one on 2026, as we think about a return to growth, what are some of the factors we should be paying attention to as potentially driving upside in 2026? Is it biotech funding? You noted earlier, obviously, some of the new products we've covered, maybe it's better China trends. As we think about the areas of potential upside in 2026, at least from your view, what do you see as some of those?
Yeah. Again, I think you hit it. Some of it is positive funding trends. A lot of traction on our new products. I mean, like I said, we're pretty excited about MockV and capturing some of that enzyme market as well. We feel pretty good about just growth even outside the United States. We're not just dependent on everything that's happening here. As we look at kind of trends in mRNA around oncology, etc., we do see some readouts happening over the next 12-18 months. There are encouraging signs here in the short to midterm for a good outlook.
Okay. On the discovery business, I think you said about 60% of that business is tied to kind of larger orders, and then the other is kind of smaller, maybe very early type discovery. Just talk about the demand trends and nature of conversations with those two buckets of customers.
Yeah. I think on, again, first, looking at the smaller orders, I mean, some of that, as these, I think the smaller ones tend to be a little bit more rationalizing on their programs. It is a little kind of variable. While there will be growth there, we cannot really predict how stable that is going to be. We expect growth there in discovery. Having said that, I think, again, with the new products we are introducing on kits that support academics, etc., we feel that it is a good indicator on the pulse of the business. As these discovery products move into GMP, we feel like that is going to be a good kind of barometer on how these programs are moving. On the GMP side, again, we have got good visibility, and that is where our sales team is mostly focused. These are the larger ones.
Like I said, we already have visibility to those orders. So that, again, is a good trend for 2026. Likewise, on the CDMO side, we pretty much have great line of sight already, customer by customer, on how that's going to play out. And then, of course, on BST, like we've said, mid-single digits, and how we see that play out is the same playbook.
Okay. Just on biotech funding, we've had some more positive updates here. I know it varies by kind of product customer, but if the uptick in biotech funding continues, how are you thinking about, or how should we think about the ability of that to kind of start to flow into Maravai, right, in orders and demands? Is it months, quarters? How do we think about kind of the lag between an improvement in funding and when that shows up in orders and demands for you?
Yeah. I mean, I think it's fairly short. Like within 6 months, you would see that demand start to tick up.
Okay. You talked about in your opening remarks kind of the efforts you made on the cost side. You guys have talked about adjusted EBITDA profitability in 2026 and the back half of 2026. Just maybe quickly talk about some of the actions that are underpinning that, your comfort with that. Is there, as we think about next year, like a theoretical revenue base you need to be able to hit that target, or is it more the cost action?
First, let me give you a little bit of color on the $50 million plus that we've communicated. That is a function of, first and foremost, we downsized. We took 25% of our headcount out. That resulted in a very kind of lean organization and more of a centralized approach to our org design. It used to be where we had kind of silos and divisions where every division was burdened with their own G&A, legal, finance, operations. Now all of that has been centralized. It has enabled really great decision-making and a much leaner organization. We talked about facilities rationalization. Some of the corporate leases that we had, we got rid of those. The rest of the sites, we will rationalize with onshoring capability. Again, that's not part of the $50 million.
We are watching every dollar we spend, and we feel pretty good that we've got levers to drive that down even further. The beauty of this business, Matt, now is that it's set up for scale. In other words, how we've kind of restructured and sized the business, as our revenue starts to grow, the mix of what we are projecting is just literally going to fall to the bottom line. This business is set up really well in terms of scale. We don't need to add operating expenses. We don't need to add any CapEx. A little bit of variable cost, of course, but outside of that, it's dialed in quite nicely to get a lot of EBITDA and profitability going.
Great. With that, I think we're out of time. Appreciate the time. Thank you.
Okay. Thanks, Matt.