Hong Kong patients could benefit from taking part in more clinical trials in mainland China, and vice versa for those on the other side of the border, according to the CEO of a government-owned institute that is exploring the projects and looking to boost biomedical innovation in the Greater Bay Area.
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Professor Bernard Cheung Man-yung, CEO of the Greater Bay Area International Clinical Trial Institute, said his organisation would explore initiatives that benefited patients.
“Can a patient from Hong Kong go to the Greater Bay Area, or just Shenzhen, to join a clinical trial, or a mainland patient come to Hong Kong to join a research project? This is something we will explore,” Cheung said in an interview last week.
The bay area scheme is the central authorities’ blueprint for connecting Hong Kong, Macau and nine other cities in Guangdong province into an economic powerhouse.
The plan to establish the institute was first raised in Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu’s policy address in 2023. It aimed to provide a one-stop clinical trial support platform for medical research institutions, under the city’s mission to become a health and medical innovation hub.
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Since its opening last November in the Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation Zone, the institute has been tasked with coordinating resources in the local public and private sectors and helping mainland and overseas drug companies with clinical trials.