Lilly expands R&D footprint in Singapore with S$42 M investment in new Digital Health Innovation Hub

Lilly Digital Health and Lilly Centre for Clinical Pharmacology (LCCP), a wholly owned subsidiary of U.S.-based Eli Lilly and Company (Lilly), on 14 Nov announced the investment of S$42 million to establish a Digital Health Innovation Hub in Singapore which will accelerate the research and development of AI-powered digital health technologies.

This cutting-edge initiative forms the basis of a 5-year plan, supported by the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB). An event celebrating the establishment of the Digital Health Innovation Hub took place at the Lilly Center for Clinical Pharmacology (LCCP) in Biopolis, where the Hub will be based.

Two additional Centers of Excellence are also planned: the Lilly Gait Center of Excellence and the Lilly Computer Vision Center of Excellence.

The Digital Health Innovation Hub will deploy Lilly’s state-of-the-art Magnol.AI™ platform, which enables sophisticated and secure ingestion, visualization, and processing of high- frequency sensor data collected using wearable sensors. When aligned with clinician and patient-reported outcomes, Magnol.AI™ enables unmatched real-time data science capabilities, which are critical for digital health technology development. Magnol.AI™ empowers clinical scientists to conduct high-quality digital health research with AI-driven precision and streamlined efficiency.

Rich Carter, Senior Vice President, Chief Digital Officer said, “We are confident our expansion of Digital Health innovation capabilities will accelerate Lilly’s global drug development programs that are boldly tackling some of the most complex health challenges we face.”

To boost Lilly and Singapore’s shared interest in AI-led scientific discovery and technology development, the Digital Health Innovation Hub will advance digital health technologies that offer unique insights into patient health outside the clinic setting. Lilly develops these digital health technologies for global clinical development teams across its focus therapeutic areas of Cardiometabolic Health, Neurodegeneration, Pain, Oncology and Immunology.

“One of the key domains we are interested in is sleep quality which has direct implications on the quality of life. Poor sleep quality can also be an important symptom of many medical disorders,” said Jian Yang, vice president, Digital health medical officer. “The Digital Health Innovation Hub will establish a cutting-edge Digital Circadian Rhythm Center of Excellence where we validate digital health technologies that can objectively and efficiently measure sleep quality with much less patient burden compared to current standard technology, polysomnography, which is costly and burdensome.”

Lilly looks forward to collaborating with Singaporean academic, health care, and research entities in order to expand the capabilities of the Digital Health Innovation Hub. These collaborations, facilitated by the Biomedical Sciences Industry Partnership Office (BMSIPO), a national platform hosted by the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), will leverage the existing highly integrated healthcare systems to foster the development of digital health technologies, reaffirming Lilly and Singapore’s commitment to improving patient care and advancing the frontiers of medical research innovation.

“Eli Lilly’s decision to establish its Digital Health Innovation Hub in Singapore will strengthen Singapore’s capabilities in utilizing AI-driven digital health technologies to accelerate global clinical development,” said Goh Wan Yee, Senior Vice President and Head, Healthcare, Singapore EDB. “This investment is also aligned with Singapore’s plans to drive AI innovation and adoption in the biomedical sciences sector, under the National AI Strategy 2.0 where AI serves as a force for good.”