Munich Startup: When we last spoke, you said that Climedo wants to give doctors more time for patients through a meaningful interplay of artificial and human intelligence. Were you able to achieve this goal?
Sascha Ritz, co-founder and CEO of Climedo: Absolutely. In the meantime, we offer the first AI interfaces on the Climedo platform. Our solution focuses on patient stratification (editor’s note: assessing the risk that an existing progressive disease could lead to complications or death), subgroup analysis, and real-time reporting through GenAI, or generative intelligence, in ongoing studies. Our goal is to enable personalized and effective therapies through a precise understanding of patients’ needs.
This patient-oriented approach has been increasingly facilitated through our platform. We place great emphasis on feedback from end users and conduct regular interviews, focus groups, and surveys with doctors, patients, and key opinion leaders. Such an iterative process optimizes our feature development and ensures high usability and appealing design.
The results speak for themselves: we have achieved above-average patient engagement and data completeness in studies.
Data treasure versus data protection
Munich Startup: What obstacles have you encountered along the way?
Sascha Ritz: On the one hand, the issue of data treasure versus data protection: According to Health Minister Lauterbach, 80 percent of statutory insurance members should have an electronic patient record (ePA) by 2025. This enables the digital provision of important health data that would also enrich clinical trials. According to a Climedo survey, patients are open to this: 50 percent would like to use the ePA in studies. Here, building a data treasure and “real-world evidence” (RWE) play an important role. RWE demonstrates the effectiveness of medicines in real-world patients, supports medical decisions, and supplements research findings. Ideally, this data treasure is also fed back to patients. With the ePA and AI support, risks and side effects can also be identified much earlier.
Lauterbach’s strategy also supports the availability and linkability of data from various sources. While many industries have long been fully digitalized, healthcare in Germany is falling far behind. This is also reflected in clinical research, which is crucial for medical innovation. The impact on study results is significant. In my view, data protection and data treasure should not work against each other, but should be intertwined.
Beyond that, the pharmaceutical industry is observing innovations like AI with great interest and we’re increasingly receiving customer inquiries about them, but actual investments are often slow to materialize.
Demand for real-time insights is increasing
Munich Startup: How has your solution further developed?
Sascha Ritz: Demand for real-time insights into ongoing studies is growing rapidly. It is no longer sufficient to receive initial results 18 to 24 months after study completion, as is typically the case. With Climedo’s real-time insights, study doctors can be better engaged as they can directly and anonymously compare patients with each other. Additionally, patients can be better informed about trends or where they stand on a progression curve. Our “data to dialogue” approach, which emphasizes transparency and education among doctors and patients, supports the launch of innovative therapies, helping the most effective and safest therapies prevail and reach patients faster.
Munich Startup: And how are things looking financially for you?
Sascha Ritz: We were recently profitable, but decided at the end of 2021 to accept an external “financial boost” to accelerate product development and marketing. The next funding round is planned for early 2025, ideally also with strategic investors from the industry. Because they can help us not only with investment, but also with accelerated marketing of our product.
Climedo: Regional roots as a strong competitive advantage
Munich Startup: What lessons has your founding team learned so far?
Sascha Ritz: Our regional roots (“made in Germany/Europe”) are a strong competitive advantage when addressing European pharmaceutical companies. Therefore, it makes sense for us to continue focusing on the DACH region and Europe. The end-user orientation that existed from the start is extremely valuable for our paying industrial customers from the pharmaceutical and medical technology industries. We raised money when we didn’t necessarily need to – at the end of 2021 we were profitable. However, no one could have predicted the economic downturn in early/mid-2022. Still, we seized the opportunity and conducted a seed round.
Munich Startup: What role did the Munich ecosystem play in your journey so far?
Sascha Ritz: Definitely a very significant role: we benefit from excellent networking with other founders and have diverse learning opportunities across different industries. Particularly valuable is also the strong presence of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in the region. Additionally, our customers like to visit us, especially around the time of Oktoberfest.
One of the next steps: Team growth
Munich Startup: What milestones are you working towards next?
Sascha Ritz: Our next milestones include growing our team and expanding our capacity. Internationalization in Europe is also on our agenda to expand our reach and tap into new markets. After the next funding round, we are aiming towards profitability to ensure long-term stability and growth.
