Pharmaceutical powerhouse Lilly Digital Health and Lilly Centre for Clinical Pharmacology (LCCP), a wholly owned subsidiary of Eli Lilly and Company, announced the creation of a SGD$42 million digital health innovation hub in Singapore.

The aim of the hub is to increase the research and development of AI-powered digital health technologies, and is part of a 5-year plan, supported by the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB).

The hub will install Lilly's Magnol.AI platform, which allows sophisticated and safe ingestion, visualization and processing of high-frequency sensor data collected using wearable sensors. 

When lined up with clinician and patient-reported outcomes, Magnol.AI allows for real-time data science capabilities.

According to Lilly, Magnol.AI empowers clinical scientists to conduct high-quality digital health research with AI-driven accuracy and streamlined efficiency.

"We are delighted with Eli Lilly's decision to establish its Digital Health Innovation Hub in Singapore," Goh Wan Yee, senior vice president and head of healthcare at Singapore EDB, said in a statement.  

"This will strengthen our capabilities in utilizing AI-driven digital health technologies to accelerate global clinical development. 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." 

THE LARGER TREND

As part of the innovation hub, Lilly announced a smart toilet that detects when and for how long a person undergoing clinical trials is using it will be used at the hub, saving individuals the task of logging the information themselves.  

The smart loo has pressure sensors that record how long a test participant is seated. The aim of collecting the data is to help researchers understand the effects of the medication they are testing.

In September, Genetic Leap teamed up with Eli Lilly to develop genetic medicine therapeutics. 

The partnership expanded on a pilot program using Genetic Leap's RNA-targeted AI platform, aimed at producing oligonucleotide drugs counter to targets chosen by Lilly in crucial therapeutic areas. 

In 2021, Eli Lilly inked a series of deals with four diabetes management companies aimed to integrate with its Tempo Pen and Tempo Smart Button products. Dexcom, Glooko, myDiabby Healthcare and Roche signed the agreements. 

Through the agreements, Eli Lilly’s Tempo Pen and connected Tempo Smart Button integrated with the software platforms and/or medical devices offered by the diabetes management companies to permit the collection and sharing of personal health data.

That same year, Welldoc, a diabetes management company, teamed up with Eli Lilly on a licensing and collaboration agreement designed to integrate the former’s software into the pharma company’s insulin products, which were at the time, still in the pipeline. The partners aim was to create a new version of Welldoc’s BlueStar, an app-based diabetes management platform that will be able to integrate insulin dosing data for Lilly insulin products.

These pharmaceutical companies also have digital health innovation hubs: Pfizer, Novartis, Roche, AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson.