Seriously ill and terminal patients in Hong Kong could benefit from faster ‘1+’ drug approval system, health secretary says

Hong Kong patients with rare or terminal illnesses could benefit from a streamlined regulatory regime for the registration of new drugs showcased in city leader John Lee Ka-chiu’s policy address, the city’s health secretary has said.

Lo Chung-mau, also a doctor, on Sunday said the new system – dubbed “1+” and to be launched on Wednesday – would also allow foreign pharmaceutical and medical devices companies to bring their products to Hong Kong for trials and help present innovations from mainland China to the rest of the world.

“This [registration regime] holds great hope for those patients who have run out of treatment options,” Lo told a radio programme. “Over the years, there have been cancer patients I have attended to asking us whether they could try out medications that were being tested in clinical trials.

“They would say ‘I will benefit if the medicine works. At least I have hope’. Some other patients told me that even though the drug couldn’t help them, [their experience] would still help other patients in future.”

Lo said the “1+” mechanism could cut the time needed to approve new drugs from two years to seven months and would be “more self-driven and proactive, more speedy and efficient”.

“There is a drug that treats congenital obstruction of the bile ducts … If we use secondary evaluation, it will take more than two years to wait for approval by foreign review agencies before it is handed over to us,” he explained.