Hong Kong to promote collaboration with institutions and pharmaceutical firms to boost city as clinical trial and research centre

“In the past, scientific research institutions had to reach out to local universities if they wished to collaborate with the Hospital Authority. In the future, [the office] will be the contact point.”

Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said in last October’s policy address that making Hong Kong a health and medical innovation hub was a major goal.

Siu said the Hospital Authority had carried out clinical research and trials over the years and that it was the foundation for medical advancement.

She added the authority was well-placed to promote the development of the pharmaceutical and biomedical industries.

Officials last month said the new office would collaborate with the Greater Bay Area International Clinical Trial Institute in the joint Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong science and technology innovation zone.

Two phase one clinical trial centres, the first step in testing a new treatment in humans, have been running at Queen Mary Hospital since 2013, operated by the University of Hong Kong, and at the Prince of Wales Hospital since 2014, run by the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Siu said a “cluster clinical research support office” would be set up this year to coordinate clinical trials carried out in a variety of hospital groups and provide support and training to their staff.

Hong Kong Hospital Authority to shorten clinical trial ethics reviews to 30 days

She added the clinical research ethics committees in every hospital group would be consolidated into a central institutional review board by the end of March.

“For cross-cluster trials and research, our colleagues have to spend a lot of time doing applications,” Sui explained.

But she said the review board would handle applications for all hospital groups in the future.

The ethics review period for non-human clinical trial applications would be shortened from 60 days to within 30 days, Siu said.

“The streamlining and enhancement will definitely attract more interested parties to come to Hong Kong or contact the Hospital Authority so that the overall environment [for clinical research] can be improved.”

The authority set up a Data Collaboration Laboratory in 2018 to provide anonymous clinical information, a collaboration platform and expert support to city universities that wanted to analyse health-related big data and run algorithms for disease prediction.

Hong Kong should create new office to run medical research: experts

Sabrina Chan So-kuen, the senior executive director of the Hong Kong Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry, said she welcomed the moves.

But she added she hoped that the ethics review period for human clinical trial applications could also be cut to within 30 days.

Chan said there were other steps, such as applying for the clinical trial certificate, carrying out a feasibility study and patient recruitment at the trial site, that pharmaceutical companies also had to complete before trials could begin, which caused more delay to the start date.

She added the process normally took more than 180 days in Hong Kong, but most other regions could complete the formalities in 60 days.

“We hope the whole process from clinical trial application to the recruitment of the first patient can be hastened to increase the competitiveness of Hong Kong,” Chan said.

She also appealed to the government to do more to encourage research talent and to create a career pathway in the field.