Editorial | Swift drug approvals the right medicine for Hong Kong
- Hong Kong public hospitals plan to streamline procedures for adding new medications to their formulary, cutting approval time for effective remedies in half to five months
The struggle to find the right cure for some rare and severe medical problems may be as painful and torturous as the illnesses themselves.
Out of desperation, patients are often guinea pigs for pilot treatments involving promising, but expensive, new drugs still pending government acceptance as subsidised medication for wider use. The process is lengthy and may add to their suffering and financial woes.
In a breakthrough, local public hospitals plan to trim procedures for adding new drugs to their formulary, enabling patients to access effective medications more quickly.
Pharmaceutical firms may submit applications to the Hospital Authority directly without going through doctors under the measures, which will be ready in half a year. It should cut the process from 10 months to five months.
This is a welcome step. But it also is a reminder of the red tape that has delayed timely access to affordable treatment over the years.
Pharmaceutical companies were required to ask doctors to write up application documents, a step the authority concedes is unnecessary. The firms should submit the data, along with documents from their own pharmacists, for approval, officials say.