Why Phase Scientific, a biotech start-up backed by Bill Gates, chose Hong Kong over Silicon Valley as a launch pad for its global ambitions

A medical diagnostics start-up which is about to launch a US$10 tooth decay risk detection kit has chosen to locate its global headquarters to Hong Kong in the hope of gaining better access to China’s growing health care market.

Phase Scientific International, founded six years ago by Hong Kong-born chairman Ricky Chiu Yin-to, says cross-border opportunities have played a role in its decision to choose Hong Kong, even as the city has yet to be internationally recognised as a major biotechnology hub.

“Hong Kong is our base for developing the mainland market and the rest of the world outside the US,” Chiu, who is also CEO, said in an interview with the Post from his office in Kwun Tong. “Applying a US government endorsed technology in China, the world’s most populous market, is a compelling business opportunity.”

Phase Scientific has raised more than US$10 million from backers that include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, US governmental agencies National Science Foundation and National Institute of Health, as well as Joseph Tam, founder and chairman of DiagCor Bioscience.

Phase Scientific is seeking to commercialise a patented sample preparation methodology that improves the accuracy of biological diagnostic tests by concentrating and purifying target molecules.