Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation’s Diagnostics Accelerator Licenses SpeechDx Dataset to Eli Lilly and Company, Advancing Speech-Based Markers as a Critical Alzheimer’s Research Tool

The Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation’s (ADDF) Diagnostics Accelerator (DxA) announces a new collaboration with Eli Lilly and Company, which has licensed the ADDF’s SpeechDx dataset, the world's largest harmonized longitudinal dataset of speech and biomarker data spanning the Alzheimer's continuum, from cognitively unimpaired individuals to Alzheimer's dementia. Lilly will use the data to investigate the utility of speech as a tool for Alzheimer's research.

“Lilly is a world leader in Alzheimer’s therapeutics and diagnostics, and their licensing of the SpeechDx data is an important recognition of the quality of this resource and the ADDF’s leadership in advancing speech-based measures,” said Isobel Coleman, Chief Executive Officer of the ADDF. “AI-driven tools have the potential to transform how we detect and monitor Alzheimer's, but they are only as good as the data behind them. Through SpeechDx, the ADDF is building one of the largest and most comprehensive datasets in this space, a unique resource designed to give researchers and industry partners what they need to develop and validate the next generation of digital markers."

SpeechDx, the ADDF's largest investment in AI to date, was launched in 2023 by the ADDF's DxA to address a critical gap in the field: the absence of datasets that track how a person's speech changes over time alongside biomarker-confirmed diagnoses and clinical outcomes. The study follows more than 2,000 participants over three years, creating a gold-standard resource that AI models can train and validate against. Speech is one of the earliest indicators of cognitive decline, and because it can be captured inexpensively through the microphones already built into smartphones and computers, it offers a highly scalable way to monitor brain health.

“For more than 35 years, Lilly has worked to advance the understanding and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. This unique dataset pairs speech-based data with established biomarkers, supporting our efforts to make diagnosis more accurate, accessible, and less invasive across the disease continuum,” said Mark Mintun, group vice president, Neuroscience Research and Development for Eli Lilly and Company. “Earlier detection is critical, as mild symptoms are often mistaken for normal aging, delaying opportunities for intervention.”

Lilly joins Siemens Healthineers and Callyope as the third organization to license the SpeechDx dataset, underscoring the potential value of dynamic, digital measures that can be used alongside blood tests to provide additional information on a patient’s cognition and future risk. 

“Speech has enormous potential as a signal of cognitive change, but potential alone is not enough,” said Niranjan Bose, Managing Director, Health and Life Sciences at Gates Ventures. “To turn that signal into a reliable digital measure, the field needs large, well-characterized datasets. That is the value of SpeechDx. We have already convened a group of high-caliber researchers alongside partners like Siemens Healthineers and Callyope. Adding Lilly brings us another step closer to establishing speech as a credible, validated tool for Alzheimer's research and drug development."