Hong Kong
September 2024
One year on from our last report on the healthcare and life sciences ecosystem in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area (GBA), a lot has changed. Major new collaborative infrastructure projects, including the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Park and the GBA Clinical Trial Institute, have made significant progress and promise to reshape the relationship between Hong Kong and mainland China, leveraging the unique strengths of each side to drive forward research and innovation. Increased flows of people, drugs and devices, data, and capital mean that GBA integration is progressing apace, creating a welter of opportunities in the process.
The regulatory landscape in Hong Kong has also been shaken up, with the city taking a big step towards an independent drug regulator of its own. Hong Kong now accepts medicines that have only received approval from one foreign body, as opposed to the previous two, which stands to render the market ever more attractive to multinational innovators. These companies are also keeping a keen eye on ongoing pilot projects whereby Hong Kong-approved drugs can be used in select mainland hospitals as well as the potential to conduct clinical trials using Hong Kong’s first-rate hospitals and the GBA’s 87 million-strong population.
Hong Kong’s strong network of hospitals and universities remain in place, with its world-leading physicians continuing to provide top-class service, as well as engage in cutting-edge clinical research. Additionally, initiatives like the HKD 10 billion Research, Academic and Industry Sectors One-plus Scheme (RAISe+) are encouraging the city’s top research professors to take their IP and, along with their teams, set up commercial companies. In other news, a severe shortage of doctors has led for calls for the creation of a third medical school, which could be operational by 2027.
Elsewhere, Hong Kong’s status as Asia’s premier financing hub for biotechs and the only true international financial centre for the enormous China market is secure. However, the city has not been immune from the waves of increased investor cautiousness sweeping the globe. Companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange today, including those pre-revenue biotechs under the Exchange’s Chapter 18A mechanism, are today much more realistically valued and must do more to prove their worth than in the bullish period of the late 2010s.
Big changes, therefore, are already underway and there will inevitably be challenges along the road. However, given that this is a city and a people that have always been defined by openness, business-mindedness, ingenuity, adaptability, and practicality; the stakeholders interviewed for this exclusive new report are confident in Hong Kong’s continued success.
One year on from our last report on the healthcare and life sciences ecosystem in Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area (GBA), a lot has changed. Major new collaborative infrastructure projects, including the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Park and the GBA Clinical Trial Institute, have made significant progress and promise to reshape the relationship between Hong Kong and mainland China, leveraging the unique strengths of each side to drive forward research and innovation. Increased flows of people, drugs and devices, data, and capital mean that GBA integration is progressing apace, creating a welter of opportunities in the process.
The regulatory landscape in Hong Kong has also been shaken up, with the city taking a big step towards an independent drug regulator of its own. Hong Kong now accepts medicines that have only received approval from one foreign body, as opposed to the previous two, which stands to render the market ever more attractive to multinational innovators. These companies are also keeping a keen eye on ongoing pilot projects whereby Hong Kong-approved drugs can be used in select mainland hospitals as well as the potential to conduct clinical trials using Hong Kong’s first-rate hospitals and the GBA’s 87 million-strong population.
Hong Kong’s strong network of hospitals and universities remain in place, with its world-leading physicians continuing to provide top-class service, as well as engage in cutting-edge clinical research. Additionally, initiatives like the HKD 10 billion Research, Academic and Industry Sectors One-plus Scheme (RAISe+) are encouraging the city’s top research professors to take their IP and, along with their teams, set up commercial companies. In other news, a severe shortage of doctors has led for calls for the creation of a third medical school, which could be operational by 2027.
Elsewhere, Hong Kong’s status as Asia’s premier financing hub for biotechs and the only true international financial centre for the enormous China market is secure. However, the city has not been immune from the waves of increased investor cautiousness sweeping the globe. Companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange today, including those pre-revenue biotechs under the Exchange’s Chapter 18A mechanism, are today much more realistically valued and must do more to prove their worth than in the bullish period of the late 2010s.
Big changes, therefore, are already underway and there will inevitably be challenges along the road. However, given that this is a city and a people that have always been defined by openness, business-mindedness, ingenuity, adaptability, and practicality; the stakeholders interviewed for this exclusive new report are confident in Hong Kong’s continued success.
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