Lilly Centre for Clinical Pharmacology ( LCCP ), a wholly owned subsidiary of US multinational pharmaceutical firm Eli Lilly and Company ( Lilly ), has established a S$42 million ( US$31.2 million ) innovation hub in Singapore to accelerate research and development of AI-powered digital health technologies.

Supported by the Singapore Economic Development Board ( EDB ), the digital health innovation hub will be based in Biopolis, an R&D centre for biomedical sciences in the city-state. 

“We have a responsibility to the communities around us to discover and develop new medicines and are driven to deliver better solutions so we can continue to improve patients’ experiences and help them live better, healthier lives,” says Rich Carter, senior vice president, chief digital officer, at Lilly.

“We are confident our expansion of digital health innovation capabilities will accelerate Lilly’s global drug development programmes that are boldly tackling some of the most complex health challenges we face.”

The hub seeks to advance digital health technologies that offer unique insights into patient health outside the clinic setting. Lilly develops these technologies for 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 is very important clinically because poor sleep quality has a significant negative impact on a person’s daytime functioning. Poor sleep quality can also be an important symptom of many medical disorders,” says Jian Yang, vice president, digital health medical officer, at Lilly.

The hub will deploy Lilly’s state-of-the-art Magnol.AI platform, which enables clinical scientists to process high-frequency sensor data collected via wearable sensors.

 “We are delighted with Eli Lilly’s decision to establish its digital health innovation hub in Singapore. This will strengthen our capabilities in utilizing AI-driven digital health technologies to accelerate global clinical development,” says Goh Wan Yee, senior vice president and head of healthcare at 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.”

Lilly will develop and expand the hub’s capabilities via partnerships with Singaporean academic, healthcare and research entities.