How will Hong Kong’s coming approval regime for medicines help patients? New, better drugs

Authorities plan to set up Hong Kong Centre for Medical Products Regulation in 2026-27, tasking it with conducting primary drug approvals

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Published: 8:30am, 28 Aug 2024

After eight years of working on new drugs to combat superbugs, the bane of public health agencies worldwide, a Hong Kong medical science research team believes it is on the verge of a breakthrough.

The team, which has identified 1,000 bioactive molecules that could potentially develop into new antibiotics to beat drug-resistant bacteria, has won multiple local and international awards for their work.

Five chemical components it identified proved effective in killing all known superbugs in laboratory and animal experiments.

But for the team, led by Polytechnic University Associate Professor Ma Cong, the waiting game must go on before a decision is made to put the new drug on the market.

Although much of the work has been done in Hong Kong, clinical trials on humans will begin in 2026 in mainland China, with the team hoping to establish clinical research collaborations in the United States too.

Before a drug can be used in Hong Kong, it must already be registered in at least two of the 36 countries specified by the Department of Health, a list that includes the US and China.

Ma suggested the requirement slowed down medical innovation in Hong Kong and said that more clinical trials could be carried out locally and drugs approved faster once the city had its own drug review system.