Repligen at Jefferies London: Strategic Growth Amid Headwinds

On Tuesday, 18 November 2025, Repligen Corporation (NASDAQ:RGEN) presented at the Jefferies London Healthcare Conference 2025, showcasing robust growth and strategic initiatives. CEO Olivier Loeillot highlighted an 18% organic growth in Q3, driven by innovation and market expansion, while acknowledging challenges in the gene therapy segment. The company aims to double in size over the next five years, leveraging its unique product portfolio and strategic partnerships.

Key Takeaways

• Repligen reported an 18% organic growth in Q3, maintaining a consistent 14%-18% growth over the past year.
• The company aims to double in size within five years, targeting a 15% CAGR across all franchises.
• Repligen plans to increase gross margins by over 100 basis points annually and reach a 30% EBITDA margin by 2030.
• Expansion in Asia, particularly China, is a key focus, with a target to increase sales from the region to 20% in five years.
• The company faces headwinds in gene therapy but sees strong growth in cell therapy, ADCs, and oligos.

Financial Results

• Q3 Performance:

- Achieved 18% organic growth.

- Maintained consistent 14%-18% growth over the last four quarters, excluding COVID-related impacts.

• Market Diversification:

- 65% of the portfolio focuses on clinical products.

- Asia currently accounts for 15% of total sales.

Operational Updates

• Filtration Business:

- Strong performance in systems, with significant growth potential in ATF technology.

- TangiNyx flat sheet cassette and fluid management solutions are performing well.

• Protein Business:

- Collaboration with Ecolab is progressing, with new opportunities in full resin solutions.

• Asia Expansion:

- Q3 saw close to 50% growth in Asia, with a strategic focus on China.

- The goal is to increase Asia's sales contribution to 20% over the next five years.

• New Products:

- Launched a single-use mixer from Medinova and a new Solo (VP) version.

- Strengthened position with Sartorius exiting stainless steel mixer manufacturing.

Future Outlook

• Growth Strategy:

- Aims to grow 5% above the market, despite anticipated headwinds in gene therapy.

- Focus on increasing market share through innovation and strategic partnerships.

• Potential Upsides:

- Anticipates a stronger rebound in capital equipment and accelerated growth in China.

- Improved funding for emerging biotech companies could drive future growth.

Q&A Highlights

• Outgrowth Algorithm:

- Based on innovation, clinical focus, key account management, and Asia expansion.

- Emphasizes creating new market segments rather than competing in crowded ones.

• ATF Opportunity:

- Significant growth potential as most customers currently use ATF for only one product.

• Mixer Strategy:

- Launched a single-use mixer, leveraging the Medinova acquisition to enhance product offerings.

For further details, refer to the full transcript below.

Full transcript - Jefferies London Healthcare Conference 2025:

Matt Stanton, Analyst, Jefferies: Thanks. My name's Matt Stanton. I'm on the Life Science Tools and Diagnostics team here at Jefferies. Happy to have the team from Repligen here with us today. We have CEO Olivier Loeillot, as well as Jacob Johnson from IR. Gentlemen, thanks for joining us here today. Maybe, Olivier, just to kick off, if I think back, one of the hallmarks of Repligen's story has always been the outgrowth algorithm to the overall bioprocessing market. If we go back to pre-COVID, that was China, new modalities, new product, and share gains. Maybe just help level set us on the go-forward outgrowth algorithm. Is it the same factors? Are there new factors? I know you've been focused on areas like fluid management, strategic accounts. So just maybe help level set us on the next three to five years, some of the main factors underpinning that outgrowth algorithm for Repligen.

Olivier Loeillot, CEO, Repligen: Yeah. Good afternoon, everybody. Thanks, Matt, for welcoming us today. Yeah, we're obviously very delighted by how Q3 has played out for us, and even beyond Q3, how the first three quarters of the year have played out for us. We've had really a great performance across all of our businesses, but also across all of our market segment, and even across all of our geography. Obviously, really very delighted about that. 18% organic growth in the quarter. In fact, when you look back to the last four quarters, we grew anywhere between 14%-18% for four quarters in a row, organic, non-COVID. Really great shape. What I think also is something I want to emphasize, it's we have a very diverse market, very diverse business today. I mean, everybody thought we were Sarepta and Sarepta-Link completely were not.

I mean, we've showed we are capable to grow and even deliver higher numbers than expected twice during the year with some of the headwind we had during the year. We have a very diversified portfolio of products. To answer your question very specifically, it's really an algorithm based on several factors. I mean, I'll start by saying we are an innovative shop. I mean, 80% of our portfolio, we think we don't really have a direct competitor. That's how we are growing faster than others. We are creating new market segments. We are not just trying to fight and gain market share on very crowded markets. We are literally trying to create new market segments. Second factor, obviously, we are very much towards clinical. I mean, still about 65% of our portfolio is going into clinical products instead of commercial.

Obviously, every time a product moves from one phase to the other, you typically see a doubling of needs and so on. That is definitely a big factor. If I have to pick up maybe a couple others as well, I would definitely pick up our key account management strategies. This has helped us to really outpace growth as well over the last couple of years. I mean, where those big pharma companies knew only maybe one or two of our product offerings, they have realized in the last couple of years we have got one of the broadest ranges of products. Obviously now we have opened the door. We are able to sell multiple products, and we have got many more opportunities over the next several years. Finally, I would maybe just mention Asia. I mean, Asia is only 15% of our sales.

Most of our competitors have anywhere between 20% and 25% of their sales in Asia, which is why we've been spending a lot of time and focus to develop our organization down there.

Matt Stanton, Analyst, Jefferies: All right. That's helpful. Maybe to dive into the filtration business. It's your biggest business. I think there's a lot of focus on ATF, and rightly so, and we'll talk about that. But there's plenty of other things in that portfolio. Maybe just talk through what you're seeing on the non-ATF side of the filtration portfolio in terms of demand, innovation, things like that.

Olivier Loeillot, CEO, Repligen: Yeah. No, I'm glad you asked that question this way. Honestly, Matt, because people sometimes feel we're only ATF. We are far more than just ATF. ATF is great. We love it. Outside of ATF in the filtration franchise, I'll mention three areas. The first one is really our systems, which, as you know, we've had three very good quarters out of the last four. I mean, we are positioning a lot of downstream systems. This TFF system very successfully. What's beautiful about it is there is a lot of consumable coming alongside those—sorry, I'm just checking. It's me. There are a lot of consumable sales coming alongside those systems we are positioning. That was one part of the growth. We also have our flat sheet cassette called TangiNyx, which has been a really great performance for us now for the last several quarters.

Last but not least, you mentioned fluid management. It is really a great story we are experiencing here where people did not know us at all for that part of business a few years ago. Now we are getting access to a lot of RFPs, including our mixers, as well as that we did not get earlier, obviously. That is also growing very nicely as well.

Matt Stanton, Analyst, Jefferies: Okay. And then maybe shifting to the other side of filtration with ATF, I think on the Q3 call, you guys talked about being involved in kind of 50-plus later-stage type products there. As we think about the ATF portfolio just maturing, right, I think you've talked about a couple million dollar pull-through on the consumable side once those go commercial. So 50-plus programs, those all go commercial. You have a couple hundred million dollar opportunity. That's before some of the blockbusters. Just help us kind of maybe dimensionalize the ATF opportunity over the midterm as that clinical side of 50-plus moves along the pipeline.

Olivier Loeillot, CEO, Repligen: Yeah. I like to say we are really at the beginning of the story here. I mean, and when people ask me on a scale from 1 to 10, where are we with that product line? We're probably anywhere between 2 and 3, meaning there is so much more growth for opportunities. The reason are multiple. I mean, it's fair to say most pharmas and most CDMOs are using ATF today. The vast majority, in fact, are. The vast majority as well are using it for one product. For the first time this year, we had a customer telling us we decided to use it across our entire monoclonal antibody portfolio. That's only one. In the meantime, they now introduced it on the second product, and they will probably introduce it on the third.

Most of the other customers, they are still only using it for one product. The second reason is most people are using it at the N-1 level, and now they're going to start using it at the N-level as well. N-level requires many more systems than it does on the N-1. That's another reason as well. Finally, I mean, CDMOs for the first time, I've never explained that before. They like the technology so much now that they're even guiding their customers, telling them, "Hey, we are okay to take your product, but only in case you let us intensify it because it will not make sense from a productivity point of view otherwise." We're at the beginning of the process. We're very excited about it because we know we've got a fantastic technology.

You have to just not become complacent, which is why when we acquired 908, we said we're going to try to combine the Raman technology, which is a product called Maverick, to our ATF technology so that people really now can not only intensify their process, but at the same time read out the performance of what's going on in the bioreactor. It looks very promising. That is something we're absolutely looking forward to as well. A lot of runway on ATF.

Matt Stanton, Analyst, Jefferies: Okay. Maybe shifting over to the protein business. Historically, a lumpier business for you in kind of the broader market. Maybe just level set us on kind of outlook for protein market demand, assuming you're going to come in better than that. Is that share gains, innovation? I think the partnership with Ecolab has gone really well. You guys have really ramped up the cadence of introduction. Just level set us on market growth in proteins over a longer period of time and how you'll outgrow across that market.

Olivier Loeillot, CEO, Repligen: Yeah. No, sure. I mean, if you look back, I mean, we went through the perfect storm with that product line. I mean, because indeed, as you mentioned rightly, we were a pure OEM partner to three companies, and two of them have disappeared completely. I mean, so we had to reinvent our business completely. Great collaboration with Ecolab. We are delighted about it, and we were closer and closer together. We were expecting some very nice growth on that side. Beyond the monoclonal antibody collaboration with Purolite, we have our own destiny in our hands fully for the rest.

I have to say we've had much more traction than I would ever have thought we would have at least a couple of years ago when I joined where a lot of big pharma companies realized there is now a company that is capable to develop, for me, in a record period of time, a full resin solution. Not only has it opened a door for clinical products, but for a lot of commercial drugs as well where, for whatever reason, they were using the wrong technology for a long period of time, and now they feel they have access to somebody who can help them develop a brand new technology.

That's why this year only, you look at quarter one and quarter three, we overdelivered those two quarters versus our initial thoughts because of some of these lumpy big new protein opportunities that I think are going to come more and more often in the next few quarters. There will be some lumpiness, but the strategy we've had is working extremely well, and we are very optimistic about what's coming around the corner here for sure.

Matt Stanton, Analyst, Jefferies: Maybe just on that note, I know you guys haven't guided for 2026, but I think you'll do 15%-20% growth in proteins this year. Again, it's been a tough period before that. Like you said, can proteins grow in 2026? And then when you talked about some of the items there, when will you kind of have the visibility in the order book there just given if the revenues are lumpy, obviously the orders are lumpy too on the customer side. Talk about maybe when you'll have the kind of visibility around proteins for next year.

Olivier Loeillot, CEO, Repligen: Yeah. First of all, we didn't guide for next year because I think knowing all of our bioprocessing companies in the world are operating like they were before COVID, where you typically have three, four months of backlog in your hands, we are of the opinion you can re-guide properly once you've got the data in your hand, which is going to be when we report out our quarter four results. I know a lot of people were wondering, why are they not guiding? It's just we've never done that. I don't see any reason to do it now that we've been doing so well for the entire year. We don't think it's the right time to guide for next year yet. In terms of protein, I mean, and beyond protein, I mean, we just went through our five-year strat plan.

Each of my franchises came with very similar type of growth CAGR for the next five years. That is why we said we are very confident we are going to be able to double the size of the company in the next five years with modest M&A activity. That is across the board. If you just make a quick calculation, it means about 15% CAGR across the board. I do not see any reason why any of the franchises would be significantly lower. That does include protein as well here.

Matt Stanton, Analyst, Jefferies: Okay. That's helpful. Maybe on Asia and China specifically, I think you were over in Shanghai recently opening an office. I think you've talked about Japan, Singapore, done a lot on the commercial front over there. Maybe just level set us on kind of the foundation you're building in APAC and then specifically on China. What's kind of the right way to think about a return to growth and the magnitude of growth in 2026, but also beyond? I think both you and some of your peers have started to sound maybe a bit better about China after some tough years.

Olivier Loeillot, CEO, Repligen: Yeah. I spent a lot of time in Asia in my life. I even lived there for three years in the past and so on. As I mentioned earlier, Asia is too small for us. I mean, we can't have only 15% of our sales down there. We have been working on a very specific, very focused Asia strategy now for the last one year, one year and a half or so. You're right, you have to really separate China from the rest because China deserves a strategy on its own. For a couple of reasons. First of all, I'm convinced that the China biopharma market is going to be one of the fastest growing markets from mid of 2026 onwards.

The way to win in China today is totally different than the way to win in China before COVID because there are a lot of local companies that have improved a lot in terms of their capability to support the China market. We are working on a very unique specific strategy in China for China that I think is going to enable us to grab some of the market share we've lost over the last several years back. Outside of China, I mean, growth has been really very strong for us for several quarters. In fact, in quarter three, our growth in Asia globally, including China, was close to 50%. What's great about the rest of Asia is pretty much across the board. I mean, I've talked a lot about Japan, Korea, Singapore in the past.

In fact, this year, India is a market that has been doing extraordinarily well for us as well. We are seeing really strength pretty much across the board. Outside of China, we are also looking at can we have a bigger play in region for region. We are working on a couple of potential plans down there here.

Matt Stanton, Analyst, Jefferies: Okay. Maybe just on your point around just kind of being under-indexed relative to peers in that region, I think they are 20%-25%, you are 15%. Three-Q was really strong, right? I think it was about 20% indexed in the quarter. As we think about that transition, there is obviously the China piece, but then also some of the ex-China items. Any finer point in terms of the cadence from here to kind of get towards, call it, peer benchmarking levels?

Olivier Loeillot, CEO, Repligen: Yeah. No, our plan, and you're right, it was a good surprise to be at 20% in quarter three. Our plan would have been to be at 20% in five years from now. Let's not get too excited about quarter three. There were a couple of big reasons why we did so well in quarter three. Our plan is really to move towards the 20% in the next five years. If you ask me, I think we're going to be faster than that because we are very ambitious and we're investing quite a bit down there. That's a real plan. Initially, it was to be at 20% in 2030.

Matt Stanton, Analyst, Jefferies: Okay. On new products, maybe first with the new mixer out of Medinova. I think you launched it earlier this year in Q1. You've kind of been demoing it, taking orders. Talk about maybe initial reception, why the product's differentiated. As we think about as you start to ship and recognize revenue on that, how do we think about the Medinova mixer new product cycle relative to some of the other successful ones in Repligen's past? Not mixers, but other new products.

Olivier Loeillot, CEO, Repligen: Yeah. Medinova for me is a perfect example of our M&A roadmap over the last several years. We acquired that business, and I'll tell you openly, when I joined, I was a little bit surprised initially why we would have bought a stainless steel mixing technology. I mean, it's the best mixing technology in the world because it's very smooth. The quality of mixing is much better. The vortex you're generating with that magnetic technology is much better than anything else. Obviously, when we acquired the business, the idea was to turn it to our own single-use mixer, which we've done in a very record period of time because it literally took us only a year and a half to have our own mixers ready. You're right, we launched it.

Beginning of this year, we are demoing across the board at multiple accounts. One of the good news that some of you have picked up is one of our biggest competitors on the stainless steel mixer side, a company called Sartorius, has decided to step out of manufacturing of stainless steel mixers earlier this year, which is strengthening even further our position on the stainless steel mixer side, which is very important because people know us already as the best mixing technology. Now that we've got the single-use version of it for people who are very heavy on single-use technology as well, they are very interested to work with us on those single-use mixers as well.

One of the great signs we get about the successes we have here is we're getting multiple RFPs over the last couple of months now for big hardware expansion projects that include mixers. Now that we've got mixers, ATF, plus all of the downstream system as well, we are probably one of the broadest suppliers of equipment for bioprocessing, which, as you see me coming with the upcoming onshoring, big RFPs that are going to come in the next couple of years, that should really represent a huge opportunity for us here for sure.

Matt Stanton, Analyst, Jefferies: Can you just remind us, I think one of the attractive opportunities around the mixer when you launched a single-use mixer was around the bags and the consumable side that sits with the mixer. Maybe just help us with the strategy there and kind of what is the plan or cadence? You start to place these instruments. How quickly can you start to kind of pull through the bags on the other side of the placements?

Olivier Loeillot, CEO, Repligen: Yeah. It depends pretty much, Matt, but in most cases, you're going to start selling bags as soon as you sell the mixers because people want to at least be able to test the new equipment they are buying. One thing I didn't mention, in every type of acquisition we're making or innovation, we're trying to connect the dots. If you want to be heavy on the single-use side, you need to have the best film. Luckily enough, we launched a film about a year, year and a half ago, which is extremely unique because there are only two films in the entire industry that enable you to manufacture your bags with a fully automated manufacturing line.

That is how you're generating economy of scale because most of the other companies can only manufacture their bags manually, which costs you a lot of money because it's a lot of labor costs and so on. Whether you go to a low-cost country or whether you're in one of the most industrialized countries, you're going to have a very high cost for manufacturing those bags. Our film will enable us to manufacture with a 100% automated line, which is going to be a huge advantage in terms of cost of goods as well. It is going to come very soon after you sell the equipment, and the opportunity can be very significant here.

Matt Stanton, Analyst, Jefferies: Okay. That's helpful. Maybe over to a different new product introduction out of the process analytics side with VP. I think myself and others maybe overlooked on the Q3 call, but you talked about this idea of a replacement cycle, which is a bit foreign sometimes in bioprocessing. Maybe just talk a little bit about the replacement opportunity there. I think it's been a while since they've kind of rolled out new technology. As we think about the pace and cadence of deploying those instruments, the customers are using them, you kind of know the base. How do we think about that replacement cycle after the launch?

Olivier Loeillot, CEO, Repligen: It's funny because if I look back, if there is one thing I really miss for this year's growth was really the opportunity we had on the analytical side. I'm particularly guilty because when I joined the company two years ago, one of the first things I realized is we've not launched a new version of that Solo for 15 years. I've had the chance in previous lives to see you need to launch new products every three to five years. I didn't mention we need to hurry up launching a new version. The pickup has been very fast now in quarter three. The good news is we're just at the beginning of the cycle. We have an install base of Solo, which is more than 2,000 units around the world. We literally only replaced 2% of that install base so far.

You would imagine that should be a tailwind for the next several quarters, if not several years, up to the time. Hopefully, we're going to have another new version of the same equipment. That is a virtuous circle we've started to enter into. That, I think, is going to be very exciting. Keep in mind as well, we're combining that Solo equipment with our PAT technology flow, which also is a big differentiator. We think it's going to position us very well here.

Matt Stanton, Analyst, Jefferies: Okay. On the new modality front, you mentioned earlier, right, there's been some headwinds this year. You guys have worked through that, still raised numbers. It's been isolated to one customer. Maybe just talk about kind of demand you're seeing more broadly across new modalities, cell gene, even mRNA, some of the other stuff you're doing. As we think about the midterm plan you talked about earlier and the growth among franchises is pretty similar, is new modality in that zip code too? Could it grow even better? Historically, it's been healthy 20%+ growth, but maybe just trends today and then also over the next three to five years, kind of what that new modality growth looks like.

Olivier Loeillot, CEO, Repligen: Yeah. We expected a muted demand in the second half because of the headwind we had on that specific gene therapy program. This is probably going to continue and last for another couple of quarters because the comp are going to be pretty tough in the first half of next year. Outside of that specific program, I mean, new modalities have been doing really well for us. You mentioned cell and gene therapy. I always like to separate the two because where gene therapy had a lot of headwinds this year, on the other side, cell therapy is on the roll again. One thing I've said multiple times as well, the beauty of having been in that industry for so many years is you realize you always have two cycles of growth.

The initial cycle, when a new modality comes to life first, where everybody gets excited about it, then you come to a bit of a hangover period for a certain number of years. Once the second wave starts, you know you're going to be enjoying it for several years. ADCs and cell therapy are, and for sure, oligos are now entering the second phase where gene therapy is informally now going through the valley of disbursement for probably the next couple of years. I'm absolutely convinced you're going to see the rebound later on. To answer your question, outside of that specific gene therapy, the rest is doing really well.

We are in a much better position today probably than we were a year ago, meaning we have diversified our play with many more new modalities across the board, including cell therapy, including antibody drug conjugate, also where we have a pretty extensive workflow to offer to customers in the field here.

Matt Stanton, Analyst, Jefferies: Maybe just on ADC, just talk about kind of how much that you're doing traditionally with MABS kind of fits right in there and where competitively do you have a portfolio there relative to others in terms of strength for ADC?

Olivier Loeillot, CEO, Repligen: When I talk about ADC, I always isolate the antibody side because the antibody that is being used for ADCs is being manufactured with the normal ways and so on. It is not incremental market. What I am really talking about is when you combine it to the toxin and all of the purification, filtration steps that are being needed to get the final product. We have a really broad portfolio of solutions, both from a filtration but from a purification point of view as well. We have really articulated that as a full solution. We are having multiple discussions with the big actors in the field, whether pharmas or CDMOs, to make sure we are helping them develop more innovative solutions for that workflow right now.

Matt Stanton, Analyst, Jefferies: Okay. Maybe just on margins, we haven't seen a normal demand backdrop here for a while, but assuming the next few years are more normal demand backdrop, is there any way to kind of think about the relationship between growth and how OpEx will trend relative to that, or just really the cadence of margin expansion from here?

Olivier Loeillot, CEO, Repligen: Yeah. This year is going to be a good year for us in terms of margin. I mean, I think at the midpoint of our guidance, our gross margin is increasing by about 200 basis points. We're aiming to grow north of 100 basis points every year for the next five years. It very much depends on the one side from volume, obviously, but on the other side from product mix. What I think is probably more important is really what we're going to be able to achieve from an operating income point of view. As you know, we've mentioned we are aiming to grow towards 30% EBITDA by 2030. We're going to get a lot of leverage. I mean, it's a fact we've invested a lot this year into talent, into a lot of infrastructure as well. Next year, probably still quite a bit.

I think from 2027 onwards, we're going to start to get much more leverage out of all of this investment here.

Matt Stanton, Analyst, Jefferies: Maybe just real quick to wrap it up, as we think about 2026 and the market outgrowth potential, I mean, what are some of the areas you see most likely to drive even further upside? Is it strategic accounts, China, new products, right? You have a number of kind of positive momentum factors. What do you see as kind of the upside drivers in 2026?

Olivier Loeillot, CEO, Repligen: Yeah. I mean, we've always said we are aiming to grow 5% higher than the market and so on, which is already pretty ambitious. As you know, next year, we've got about 200 basis points of headwind with gene therapy. I mean, what could help accelerate further is if we see an even stronger rebound on capital equipment. I mean, it's a fact capital equipment market is still not at the highest level it could be. China is another factor for sure. I mean, if we see acceleration of China pickup and if our strategy reveals to be really working well as I expect it to be. Maybe finally emerging biotech as well. I mean, this great quarter three, let's see if it's being confirmed later on. If it does with better funding, I think funding in quarter three was $13 billion versus $9 billion in quarter two.

If this is being confirmed and so on, then I think we could see even further acceleration.

Matt Stanton, Analyst, Jefferies: Great. We're out of time, so we'll leave it there. Thanks.

Olivier Loeillot, CEO, Repligen: Thanks, Matt.

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