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

Lilly to drive next-generation AI-powered digital health technology research in Singapore

SINGAPORE, Nov. 14, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Lilly Digital Health and Lilly Centre for Clinical Pharmacology (LCCP), a wholly owned subsidiary of U.S.-based Eli Lilly and Company (Lilly), today announced the establishment of a SGD$42 million Digital Health Innovation Hub in Singapore to 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).

A celebration event today marked the establishment of the Digital Health Innovation Hub held at the Lilly Centre for Clinical Pharmacology (LCCP), a world class clinical research unit in Biopolis, where the Digital Health Innovation Hub will be based.

"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," said Rich Carter, senior vice president, chief digital officer. "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 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," 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." 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.

Lilly is excited to develop and expand the Digital Health Innovation Hub's capabilities via partnerships with Singaporean academic, health care and research entities. 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 health care 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.

"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," 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."

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About Lilly

Lilly is a medicine company turning science into healing to make life better for people around the world. We've been pioneering life-changing discoveries for nearly 150 years, and today our medicines help tens of millions of people across the globe. Harnessing the power of biotechnology, chemistry and genetic medicine, our scientists are urgently advancing new discoveries to solve some of the world's most significant health challenges: redefining diabetes care; treating obesity and curtailing its most devastating long-term effects; advancing the fight against Alzheimer's disease; providing solutions to some of the most debilitating immune system disorders; and transforming the most difficult-to-treat cancers into manageable diseases. With each step toward a healthier world, we're motivated by one thing: making life better for millions more people. That includes delivering innovative clinical trials that reflect the diversity of our world and working to ensure our medicines are accessible and affordable. To learn more, visit www.lilly.com or follow us on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.

About Lilly Centre for Clinical Pharmacology Pte Ltd

Lilly Centre for Clinical Pharmacology (LCCP) is a fully owned subsidiary of Eli Lilly & Company. LCCP was established (as Lilly-NUS Centre for Clinical Pharmacology Pte Ltd) on the National University of Singapore campus in 1997 and moved to its current location in Biopolis in 2018. At the heart of LCCP is a world-class Clinical Research Unit, with 49 beds, where healthy subjects and patients participate in clinical trials of new drugs that potentially will become new medicines for treating currently unmet medical needs. LCCP performs studies in Lilly's focus areas of Cardiometabolic Health, Neurodegeneration, Pain, Oncology and Immunology, and has performed 207 studies over 28 years, including 27 First Human Dose studies, where new drugs have been given to people for the first time. LCCP also hosts drug development scientists working on global teams developing new medicines for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, dementia and inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. Over the years, many Lilly global drug development teams have been led by LCCP scientists.

About Magnol.AI

Lilly is redefining the future of connected clinical trials with the creation of Magnol.Ai-a groundbreaking, first-of-its-kind sensor cloud platform built with end-to-end AI-powered capabilities for the continuous ingestion, visualization and transformation of extensive data from wearable devices. This innovative solution facilitates connected clinical trials and plays a crucial role in developing digital biomarkers-objective, quantifiable physiological and behavioral indicators used to measure the impact of medicines. It functions by leveraging cloud computing, big data tools, information visualization, automated pipelines and deployed algorithms to make it easier for R&D teams to research and develop digital biomarkers and digital health technologies.