Hongkongers to get faster, cheaper access to new medicines with improved procurement system

Hongkongers will have quicker and cheaper access to new medications when the Hospital Authority starts centralising new drug assessments and improving its procurement system to cut introduction times to its formulary by five months.

The authority’s chief pharmacist, William Chui Chun-ming, said on Thursday doctors would no longer need to go through the assessment at their own hospitals and could directly apply to the head office to introduce new drugs starting from mid-November.

“The two-level assessment possibly has slowed down the process. We deem it unnecessary,” Chui told a radio programme.

“Instead, we can centralise the assessment … It will take only five months to introduce a new drug into the formulary.”

Under the current assessment arrangement, it takes about 10 months to incorporate a new drug into the public hospitals’ formulary.

Pharmaceutical companies require doctors to file an application, which is submitted to public hospitals for review before reaching the authority’s head office.