Secretary for Health Prof Lo Chung-mau met Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference Changchun Committee Chairman Gao Zhiguo today for in-depth exchanges on the development of biomedicine and Chinese medicine (CM) in the two places.

Prof Lo said the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government is determined to fully utilise the Hong Kong SAR’s institutional advantages of “one country, two systems” and its professional strengths in the healthcare sector to develop Hong Kong into an international health and medical innovation hub, thereby enabling the innovative medical technologies to go global and attract foreign investment, and promoting new quality productive forces in biomedicine.

The Hong Kong SAR Government will expedite the reform of the approval mechanism for drugs and medical devices and enhance the translation of innovative biomedical research results into clinical applications, such as jointly establishing the Greater Bay Area (GBA) Clinical Trial Collaboration Platform in concerted efforts by the GBA International Clinical Trial Institute in the Hong Kong Park of the Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science & Technology Innovation Co-operation Zone and the GBA International Clinical Trials Center in the Shenzhen Park to integrate resources and technologies to provide one-stop clinical trial support for medical research institutions.

It will also establish a Real-World Study & Application Centre to open up the extensive and standardised local medical databases to support clinical diagnosis and treatment, new drug development, and public health research, and integrate real-world data generated through the special measure of using Hong Kong-registered drugs and medical devices used in Hong Kong public hospitals in the GBA to accelerate approval for registration of new drugs in Hong Kong, the Mainland, and overseas.

Additionally, it will prepare for the establishment of the Hong Kong Centre for Medical Products Regulation (CMPR) to progress towards the "primary evaluation" approach as well as take forward preparatory work for legislating for the statutory regulation of medical devices to dovetail with the timetable for the establishment of the CMPR.

Regarding CM, the Hong Kong SAR Government is committed to developing Hong Kong into a bridgehead for the internationalisation of CM, and encourages co-operation between schools and research institutions of the two places in various areas such as CM education and research.

Hong Kong's first CM hospital will commence services in phases starting from the end of this year, which will serve as a key platform for promoting clinical scientific research collaboration in proprietary Chinese medicines development, synergising with the GBA Clinical Trial Collaboration Platform to facilitate the commencement of internationally recognised multicentre clinical trials, thereby further accelerating the translation of CM research findings.