New modalities driving Repligen’s desire to become ‘significantly bigger’New modalities driving Repligen’s desire to become ‘significantly bigger’

Like many of its bioprocess peers – Sartorius, Danaher etc – Repligen has reported robust results following a number of turbulent years. While full year revenues remained flat year-on-year ($634 million vs $632 million), the fourth quarter showed significant signs of recovery with revenues up 13% year-on-year (excluding COVID-related hit) to $168 million.

Orders, meanwhile, grew 20% versus the same period in 2023, driven by demand from contract development and manufacturing organizations (CDMOs) though management said small biotech firms remain hesitant to invest in new technologies.

Repligen also reported strong demand for its core offerings – filtration revenue exceeded $370 million for the year, up 9%, and saw a 30% increase in orders in Q4 year-on-year (again excluding COVID). Chromatography was down 3% for the full year but saw a 10% uptick in Q4, momentum that management expects to see continues into 2025 as it looks to convert “more large pharma companies to OPUS Pre-Packed Column and Chrome systems.”

And when going into more details about Repligen’s strategy, CEO Olivier Loeillot laid out several priorities for growth in 2025. He said the company will focus on improving the customer experience, enhancing its influence in Asia, and increasing its R&D spending, “particularly focused on single-use mixers launch [and] new ligands and resins for new modalities.” Loeillot also discussed Repligen's 2025 plans for M&A.

The recently appointed CEO said “maintaining our ambition to acquire one to two businesses to further strengthen our position” is key, with a particular focus on new modalities and Process Analytical Technology (PAT). This, he added, will make Repligen “further fit for growth and position ourselves to be a significantly bigger business in the not-too-distant future.”

Repligen has a long string of acquisitions under its belt that has helped propel it beyond its Protein A chromatography media supplier heritage, making it a diversified life sciences vendor. Most recently, the firm acquired Tantti, adding macroporous chromatography beads used in the purification of new modalities including viral vectors and nucleic acids to its portfolio.

“We love new modalities for a lot of reasons,” said Loeillot. “Almost half of products [biopharma] has in their pipeline are coming from new modalities. It makes the life of the global head of R&D from those big pharma companies very complex because in the past they were dealing with three or four different types of products but now they have to deal with 10 to 15 different ones.”

“So, what do these guys need? They need a company that is capable to support them with customized solutions, support them with agility and the ability to turn around a solution for the problem they are facing.”

Loeillot, who sat on a BioProcess International panel at last year’s Biotech Week Boston, said his firm is succeeding in this respect due to its agility and flexibility.

“If you compare manufacturing of a CAR-T product on one side, to the manufacturing of a viral vector on the other side, or ADCs and so on, they all have totally different requirements.”

And with more modalities being developed, Loeillot believes Repligen is well prepared. “We are bringing a lot of good solutions to our customers on that side.”