About Us

Our History Leadership team


TriLink BioTechnologies, part of Maravai LifeSciences, is a best-in-class contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) for the synthesis of nucleic acids, NTPs and mRNA capping analogs. TriLink has scale-up expertise and unique mRNA, oligonucleotide & plasmid production capabilities for companies focused on therapeutic, vaccine, diagnostic and biopharmaceutical breakthroughs.  

Biopharma companies turn to TriLink as a critical supplier of modified nucleic acids and as a CDMO partner to help them move from early research into clinical trials. TriLink’s proprietary CleanCap® mRNA co-transcriptional capping technology simplifies mRNA manufacturing by removing additional enzymatic steps, resulting in high capping efficiency and improved yields over traditional co-transcriptional capping methods.

TriLink’s CDMO services offer a range of manufacturing grade products from discovery-grade (RUO) to its customizable intermediate-grade - GMPLink to full GMP-grade with scale-up and technology transfer expertise. With its recent facility expansion to increase cGMP capacity, TriLink provides support from initial research phases to the production of material for use in clinical trials. TriLink operates a quality system in compliance with ICH Q7, Good Manufacturing Practice Guidance for Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients, Section 19, APIs for Use in Clinical Trials, and ISO 9001:2015 standards.

TriLink has been a pioneer in nucleic acid synthesis & manufacturing since its inception in 1996. With product and service offerings and expertise that have adapted to customer needs over the decades, TriLink remains committed to taking on challenges others simply will not. TriLink continues to expand its cGMP and general mRNA, oligonucleotide & plasmid manufacturing capacity at its new San Diego global headquarters to support therapeutic, vaccine and diagnostic customers.

Picture of TriLink Facility

Over 25 Years as an Industry Leader in Nucleic Acid Synthesis

1996

1996

Founded in May in San Diego, California. By year-end, TriLink moves into first commercial lab space, begins shipping oligonucleotides, and hires first employees.

1997

Obtains license to synthesize radioactive compounds. TriLink quickly becomes the industry leader and one of the only companies in the world to successfully manufacture radio-labeled oligos.

1997
1998

1998

First customer-written paper citing TriLink products is published in the Journal of Immunology by David Broide et al., Immunostimulatory DNA sequences inhibit IL-5, eosinophilic inflammation, and airway hyperresponsiveness in mice.

1999

Expands into nucleoside triphosphates. Cofounds Solulink®, a company focused on unique bioconjugation chemistries. Outgrows first lab and expands to Nancy Ridge site. First paper under TriLink corporate name is published.

1999
2002

2002

Company continues to experience remarkable growth and expands to a 40,000 square foot building that served as the corporate headquarters.

2005

Receives first of four SBIR grants for chemically modified primers and NTPs for improved hot-start PCR, the basis of the CleanAmp® product line.

2005
2006

2006

Proven pre-clinical oligo production leads to first alliance partnership with large therapeutic oligo CMO, enabling customers to easily transition from R&D to clinical trials.

2011

Leverages expertise with complicated nucleic acids and begins IVT production of long RNA and mRNA for use in pharmaceutical research and development. First patent for CleanAmp® is granted.

2011
2014

2014

Receives ISO 9001 certification. Opens state-of-the-art cGMP manufacturing facility and expands into mRNA and oligonucleotide therapeutics. Secures contract for synthesis of Ebola vaccine with Battelle. Awarded patents for proprietary CleanTag® technology.

2015

Publications citing TriLink products exceeds 6,000. Adds gram scale mRNA production and expands mRNA purification offerings. Launches CleanTag® Small RNA Library Prep kits. Cofounds ETAGEN, a company focused on gene editing technologies, with Tod Woolf.

2015
2016

2016

Strategic investment by Maravai LifeSciences.

2017

Launches CleanCap® - a patented mRNA capping method that makes remarkable improvements over existing technology.

2017
2018

2018

Receives ISO 9001:2015 certification.

2019

TriLink & Maravai move to new global headquarters. Space includes 105,000 sq. ft. facility space with 50,000 sq. ft. of custom manufacturing space, including 5 cGMP suites.

2019
2020

2020

Two patents granted surrounding CleanCap® technology. The patents cover capped trinucleotide primers and capped tetranucleotide primers not limited to any particular sequences.

2021

Expands services to include plasmid manufacturing

2021
2020

2021

TriLink BioTechnologies Expands its Intellectual Property Portfolio with European Patent for its CleanCap® technology

2022

Maravai LifeSciences Acquires MyChem, a Leader in Proprietary Ultra-Pure Nucleotides

2022









 

Leadership Team

Drew Burch, Executive Vice President, Nucleic Acid Products
Drew Burch has over 30 years of strategic, operational, commercial and financial experiences in the life sciences industry. Prior to joining Maravai, he was President, Softgels at Thermo Fisher Scientific, where he led the division’s CDMO services in the U.S. and Europe. He also held multiple leadership positions across other Thermo Fisher Scientific’s business segments, including Instrument and Enterprise Services and European Drug Product Division as President, and Life Sciences Solutions as Vice President, Strategy and Business Development. Previously, Mr. Burch worked as an advisor to healthcare companies on M&A during his tenures at Barclays Capital, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch & Co. He holds an MBA from Stanford University Graduate School of Business and a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Yale University.


Becky Buzzeo, Chief Commercial Officer
Becky Buzzeo has more than 20 years of commercial leadership experience. Before joining Maravai, in October of 2022, she was the Vice President and General Manager, Advanced Therapies, at Thermo Fisher Scientific, where she oversaw CDMO services for plasmid DNA, cell therapy and mRNA. Prior to that, Mrs. Buzzeo led commercial operations at Brammer Bio and held commercial roles of increasing responsibility at Patheon Biologics and Life Technologies, before its acquisition by Thermo Fisher in 2014. Mrs. Buzzeo holds a B.S. in biology from Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania.



Kate Broderick, Chief Innovation Officer
Kate has extensive experience and expertise in leading and liaising with multi-disciplinary groups from discovery and R&D to engineering and clinical teams. She brings strong and broad scientific expertise to TriLink, which covers multiple areas, including gene delivery, medical devices, gene therapies for the treatment of various infectious diseases, cancer immunotherapies and vaccine development. Additionally, she has extensive experience with non-viral delivery systems for a wide range of vaccine targets and cancer immunotherapies. Kate has published extensively and is a respected industry expert in the areas of DNA delivery and DNA based technologies. Prior to joining TriLink, Kate spent 15 years with Inovio Pharmaceuticals where she assumed positions of increasing responsibility, starting as Scientist, to her most recent position as Senior Vice President, R&D. She received her B.Sc. in Genetics and her Ph.D. in Molecular Genetics from the University of Glasgow.



Peter Stolba, VP of Business Operations
Peter brings over fifteen years of experience in supply chain and operations management in the Pharmaceutical and various other industries. Peter joined Trilink from Pfizer working in the Clinical Strategy and Supply Management organization with experience in design of preclinical through commercial supply strategies. Prior to Pfizer, he worked as Director of Supply Chain at Halo Pharmaceutical; a full-service FDA, BLA and DEA compliant CDMO specializing in oral dosage, sterile ointments, and API manufacturing. Peter is a US Navy veteran who served on the USS Stout DDG-55 based in Norfolk, VA. He holds a bachelor's degree in logistics management from American Military University and an MBA with a supply chain specialization from National University. He also has a certification in financial management from Cornell University and is a certified Lean Six Sigma Green Belt.



Jay Lochhead, VP Quality and Regulatory
Jay joined TriLink with over thirty years of experience in various leadership roles within Operations and Quality across Biotechnology, Pharmaceutical, and Medical Device industries. He brings experience in all phases of product development from Research through Commercial Manufacturing. Prior to joining TriLink, Jay worked as a Quality and Regulatory Consultant for Jeff Yuen and Associates and for companies such as Amgen, Bachem, MedImmune (AstraZeneca), and others. Jay has been a partner in due diligence, mergers and acquisitions, and has worked on both sides of CDMO operations. Jay received Bachelor of Science degrees in Chemistry and Biology from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an MBA from Frostburg State University (University of Maryland affiliate). He holds the following certifications: ASQ Certified Quality Manager (CQM), ASQ Certified Quality Engineer (CQE), and ASQ Certified Quality Auditor (CQA). Jay is also an active member of ISPE, ASQ, and PDA



Doreen Pippen, VP of Marketing
Doreen Pippen joined Maravai LifeSciences as Vice President, Marketing in January 2021 and has extensive experience in market development, product management, strategy and marketing leadership for scientific consumables and instrument services. She was most recently Senior Vice President of Business Development and Product Leader at Science and Medicine Group. She also held several management roles at Thermo Fisher Scientific in customer loyalty, global service and support, as well as market development and product management for the Protein Analysis, Epigenetics and qPCR portfolios. Ms. Pippen holds an MBA from National University and a B.A. in biology from the University of San Diego.



Chanfeng Zhao, VP of R&D Chemistry
Chanfeng brings over 20 years of experience of nucleotide and modified nucleotides used in Sequencing and Synthetic Genomics fields. She was the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of MyChem LLC (acquired by TriLink), a company that specialized in making synthetic ultra-pure nucleotides to customers in the diagnostics, pharmaceutics, genomics and research markets. Prior to MyChem, Chanfeng was one of the first employees at Illumina where she was a Staff Scientist and Project leader. while there she developed the chemistry of attaching modified oligonucleotides to bead surfaces for BeadChip products. Chanfeng received her Ph.D in Chemistry from SUNY at Buffalo, and a B.Sc with honors in Petroleum Chemical Engineering from East China University of Science and Technology.

 
Contact for the Media:

Sara Michelmore
MacDougall
+1 781-235-3060
[email protected]

 
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