TimeTeller is one of Hamburg’s most high-profile startups, having won awards including the German Startup Award and the Hamburger Gründerpreis. However, with its medical technology product, it also faces specific challenges in terms of commercialisation and financing. During a fireside chat organised by the Deep Tech Club, founder Angela Relógio explained how she managed to do this.
Angela Relógio, founder of TimeTeller © Mathias Jäger/Hamburg Startups
The body clock as a research topic
Every person has an individual internal clock – known in technical terms as the circadian rhythm – which influences certain processes in the body. This includes, for example, the time of day at which a cancer drug is particularly effective or ineffective. Angela Relógio spent many years researching this topic at the Charité in Berlin, without giving any thought to commercial applications. For her, the focus was on the scientific ambition to discover and develop something new. The result is a saliva test that makes it easy to determine one’s circadian rhythm. This led to the creation of a product that could potentially be successfully marketed, prompting a change in thinking.
Angela Relógio talking to Julius Welsch (Life Science Nord) and Dirk Freise (Shortcut Ventures) © Mathias Jäger/Hamburg Startups
Success factors: patent protection and marketability
A key question in this context is who actually owns the rights to a research result – the researchers or the university where it was produced? As a rule, it is the university. TimeTeller is an exception to this; the startup has reached an agreement with the Charité ensuring that it holds the exclusive rights of use. Another crucial point is patenting. This conflicts with researchers’ need to publish their results. However, once this has been done in any form whatsoever, it is no longer possible to file a patent application. Angela Relógio therefore postponed publication and, for cost reasons, limited her patent application to Europe, having initially toyed with the idea of entering the Asian market.
The next issue to be clarified was the method of commercialisation. Initially, the plan was to use the saliva test exclusively to determine the ideal time for cancer treatment. Fortunately, a partner was found early on in the form of the health insurance provider TK, which agreed to cover the costs under certain conditions. However, further business opportunities also emerged. Pharmaceutical companies can gain important insights into the dosage of certain ingredients in terms of their effectiveness or potential harm in relation to the body’s internal clock when developing their medicines. A test kit is currently also available for consumers, which can be used, for example, to determine the best time for physical activity.
The advice to medtech startups is therefore to position themselves as broadly as possible in terms of the potential use case of their inventions, particularly as different applications are subject to different regulations and approval procedures, which can be a crucial time factor. Such diversification is also attractive to investors, as is the evidence of patents. TimeTeller is therefore well-positioned in several respects, even though the startup has so far managed without a major funding round. Angela Relógio does, however, see this as a possibility for the future, provided partners can be found who offer more than just financial benefits.
