Smart toilet, AI platform among tech in use at drugmaker Eli Lilly’s new S$42 million hub in Singapore

 How can clinical trial participants be prevented from recording information inaccurately? One solution for pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Company comes in the form of a smart toilet that detects when – and for how long – a person is using it, saving him the trouble of logging the information himself.

The smart loo is among a plethora of smart sensors used at Lilly’s new S$42 million Digital Health Innovation Hub here to make clinical trials more comfortable for participants and improve the quality of medical research.

Backed by the Economic Development Board (EDB), the hub was launched on 14 November  at the Lilly Centre for Clinical Pharmacology in Buona Vista, expanding the US-based company’s work in Singapore, where it has operated for more than two decades.

The loo has pressure sensors to log how long a test participant is seated – one of many forms of data collected that helps researchers understand the effects of the medication they are testing.

Dr Jian Yang, the company’s vice-president of digital health, said the prototype is a building block to develop devices that can detect users’ toilet usage passively, possibly in the form of a smartwatch or wearable.
 

The smart loo is an example of technological development that is being driven at the centre, which is the company’s only internal phase 1 clinical trial unit globally – a specialised medical facility to conduct early-stage human clinical trials for new drugs, devices and treatments.
 

The centre has 49 beds for medical trials, which often require participants to stay overnight at a facility, allowing researchers to monitor patterns like sleep and bathroom use.

Much of the company’s S$42 million investment is allocated to innovation and talent, said Dr Yang

Among the innovations is an artificial intelligence (AI) model developed by Lilly called Magnol.AI, a cloud platform that collects data from wearables and sensors used by test participants. The program helps researchers crunch massive amounts of data collected into simple charts for them to analyse.

Much of the process of data entry by clinical trial participants has also been digitalised through a mobile app.

Asked about the centre’s goals, Dr Yang said Lilly aims to develop its expertise in three areas, including gait research and a computer’s image recognition abilities – which are key to advancing predictive healthcare and personalised treatment.

The centre will also specialise in digital circadian rhythm research – the study of how people’s daily patterns like sleep cycles are affected by medication and other factors.

Dr Yang added: “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.”
 

Dr Ronan Kelly, managing director of the centre, said the research centre has created new roles at Lilly, including data scientists and engineers, which will add to the current headcount of roughly 80 employees at the centre.

He did not give an estimated number of new employees the company intends to recruit.

He added that the hub will also explore new medicine aimed at treating Alzheimer’s disease, autoimmune diseases and cancer.

EDB vice-president of healthcare Chen Pengfei said in an address at the launch that the Government’s partnership with Lilly has helped build scientific expertise and clinical development in Singapore.

EDB did not give details of its funding to the company.

Mr Chen added that Lilly’s plans to use AI for drug discovery are in line with Singapore’s National AI Strategy 2.0, which was announced by then Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong in 2023, when he outlined the plan to use AI to drive innovation and growth.
 

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