Editorial | Hong Kong can and should have its own drug approval body
- By investing in local R&D and streamlining the process to bring medicines to the market, the city can build the infrastructure for nurturing a biomedical hub
The race to stay ahead of disease with medicines is a marathon. Development of new or improved pharmaceutical drugs is just the beginning. From research and testing to clinical trials and regulatory approval, there are no short cuts.
The approval process is exacting and complicated. Hong Kong does not conduct its own, but instead relies on regulatory bodies overseas and on the mainland that conduct their own assessments.
A pharmaceutical firm can apply to register a drug in Hong Kong if it has obtained approval from two or more of the 36 bodies.
Health secretary Lo Chung-mau says Hong Kong should consider setting up an approval system of its own as part of his vision of transforming the city into a biomedical innovation hub, in line with Beijing’s national development blueprint for the city.
By streamlining the drug approval process and building capacity, not unlike the internationally referenced United States Food and Drug Administration, Hong Kong could be faster to the market with drugs rather than going through a two-layer process.
Lo says that if the city has a powerful, internationally recognised body that could approve products for the market this would also attract pharmaceutical firms that often carried out research where the regulator was based.