Hong Kong Medical and Health Council: Improving New Drug Development and Approval Mechanisms to Develop Hong Kong as an International Healthcare Innovation Hub

The Zhitong Finance App learned that on April 11, the Secretary for Health and Services of Hong Kong, Professor Lo Chung-mau, said in his speech in the Legislative Council that the Hong Kong Government is working hard to promote new productivity in biomedical technology and develop Hong Kong into an international medical innovation hub. In November 2024, the Government established the “Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area International Clinical Trials Institute” (Clinical Laboratory) in the Hong Kong Park of the Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation Zone to provide a one-stop clinical trial support platform for pharmaceutical R&D institutions. The laboratory will work with several research centers in the Shenzhen Park to build a “Greater Bay Area Clinical Trial Collaboration Platform” to speed up the approval and marketing of new drugs by combining data from the “Hong Kong and Macao Pharmacovigilance” data.

Lo Chung-mau mentioned that the scope of application of the “1+” New Drug Approval Mechanism (“1+” mechanism) will be extended to all new drugs from November 1, 2024. The Hong Kong Department of Health also held the first “1+” New Drug Registration Application Briefing Seminar last month, and will propose a timetable for the establishment of the “Hong Kong Pharmaceutical Regulatory Centre” and a roadmap towards “first-tier approval” in the first half of this year.

In addition to developing an international healthcare innovation hub, the Hong Kong Government is also comprehensively reviewing the positioning and goals of the healthcare system, reforming the functions and division of labour between the Hospital Authority (HA), the Department of Health and the Primary Care Department, strengthening the health promotion and disease prevention work of the Primary Care Department and the Department of Health, and strengthening the role of the Department of Health as a supervisory authority.

In order to further the reform of the health-care system, the Hong Kong Government will adjust expenditure allocations for different medical fields accordingly to ensure proper use of resources. The government's current expenditure budget for health care for 2025-26 was HK$115.3 billion, accounting for 19.6% of the government's current expenditure, an increase of 5.6 percent over the revised current expenditure for 2024-25.

According to the three-year funding arrangement agreed upon in 2017, the Hong Kong Government provides funding to the Hospital Authority according to the population growth rate and changes in population structure to meet the increase in budget demand. In 2025-26, the Hong Kong Government's recurrent funding to the Hospital Authority was HK$99 billion, an increase of 3.7 percent over the revised budget for 2024-25 (HK$95.4 billion). Some of the main measures implemented by the Hong Kong Hospital Authority include:

(1) Implementing governance and management reforms to improve the quality, safety and efficiency of public healthcare services and facilities;

(2) Implement public medical fee reform, guide citizens to make good use of medical resources, reduce waste and misuse, and strengthen medical coverage for “poor, acute, serious, and critical” patients, thereby strengthening the sustainability of the medical system;

(3) Improving the quantity and quality of public medical services, including adding about 330 hospital beds, increasing the number of operating theatres, endoscopy sessions and cataract surgery services, enhancing clinical services, shortening waiting times for specialist outpatient clinics, and integrating pediatric services at Hong Kong Children's Hospital; and

(4) Strengthen the unified procurement of pharmaceutical equipment, promote cost efficiency, and develop smart hospital projects to improve service quality, safety and efficiency through advanced technology.

The Hong Kong Department of Health will strengthen health promotion and disease prevention, including formulating life-cycle health promotion strategies, strengthening the “Whole School Health Plan”, optimizing various vaccine subsidy schemes, and increasing the time-bound additional funding of approximately HK$275 million, mainly for the Elderly Health Voucher Program.

In terms of medical manpower, the Hong Kong Government has been strengthening the training of medical professionals and moderately increasing the number of places in government-funded health-related degree programs. The number of medical student training places funded by the University Grants Council (University Grants Committee) more than doubled from 320 per year in 2009/10 to 650 per year in 2025/26.

The Hong Kong Government will continue to actively recruit non-locally trained healthcare workers, including doctors, dentists and nurses. Last month, the Government submitted the “Supplementary Medical Services (Amendment) Bill 2025” to the Legislative Council to open up new ways to train non-local paramedical professionals to work in public healthcare institutions.

Regarding the third medical school, the Hong Kong government supports local universities in preparing to establish a third medical school. This year's “Budget” announced that the government will reserve resources in the form of matchmaking for universities to prepare new medical schools. The “Working Group on Preparing a New Medical School” has received a total of three proposals. It is expected that the evaluation will be completed within this year and the proposed plan will be submitted to the Government.

In terms of primary care, the Hong Kong Government is comprehensively advancing the recommendations of the “Primary Care Blueprint”. Among them, the “Pilot Program for Joint Management of Chronic Diseases” has introduced exclusive nursing clinic services, expanded screening to achieve “full coverage of the three levels” of blood lipid tests, and has also been phased out to designated general outpatient clinics to provide chronic disease prevention, screening and nursing services to disadvantaged communities. We are happy to see that the number of people participating in the program has surpassed 100,000.

The Hong Kong Government will also continue to develop regional health centres and their interdisciplinary primary care service network. Within this year, the three regional health stations in Central and Western District, Yau Tsim Wong and Eastern Districts will be upgraded to regional health centres, and integrated women's health services will also be launched. Furthermore, the government will complete the formulation of a community drug list in the fourth quarter of this year, and launch a community pharmacy program in stages starting in the fourth quarter of next year.

In terms of the “Greater Bay Area Pilot Program for Elderly Health Care Vouchers”, the Hong Kong Government will implement the “Greater Bay Area Pilot Program” (“Pilot Program”) in 2024, expanding it to seven comprehensive medical/dental service institutions located in four mainland cities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (Greater Bay Area). As of February this year, more than 11,000 elderly people have used medical vouchers at relevant service points, involving a total amount of about HK$27.3 million. We are preparing to expand the “pilot program” to reach full coverage of nine mainland cities in the Greater Bay Area within this year.

In terms of the development of traditional Chinese medicine, the Hong Kong Government has always strived to promote the high-quality, high-level and all-round development of traditional Chinese medicine in Hong Kong, and promote Hong Kong to become a bridgehead for traditional Chinese medicine to the international level. 2025 is an important year for the development of traditional Chinese medicine in Hong Kong. Hong Kong's first “Blueprint for the Development of Traditional Chinese Medicine” will be released at the end of the year, and the two flagship projects of the Hong Kong Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine and the Permanent Building of the Government Chinese Medicine Testing Centre will also be put into service in stages starting at the end of the year.

In terms of tobacco control efforts, the smoking rate in Hong Kong fell from 10.2 percent in 2019 to 9.1 percent in 2023. To continue to promote progress in tobacco control, the Hong Kong Government proposed a new tobacco control strategy in June 2024, setting out short-, medium- and long-term measures to reduce the harm of tobacco products to society in a gradual and multi-pronged manner. To implement the relevant measures, we will soon submit the Tobacco Control Legislation (Amendment) Bill to the Legislative Council.

In terms of oral health, the relevant amendments to the Dentists Registration (Amendment) Bill 2024 have been gradually implemented this year, including the addition of new channels to allow qualified non-locally trained dentists to practice in Hong Kong. The first batch of non-locally trained dentists began working in the Department of Health in the first quarter of this year to ease the shortage of dentists in Hong Kong. The Government will also continue to increase training places for dental hygienists and dental therapists.

The Hong Kong Government is actively developing primary oral health care with a focus on prevention, that is, “do broad, do shallow”, and focus on providing appropriate dental care services for disadvantaged groups, that is, “narrow and deep.” The government already implemented the “Youth Dental Care Joint Management Pilot Program” in March, and new measures such as the “Community Dental Support Program” and preventive dental services for preschool children will be implemented within this year.

In terms of the development of “eHealth Plus”, the Hong Kong Government will continue to implement the “eHealth Plus” five-year plan to transform eHealth into a comprehensive medical information infrastructure, so that the public can receive more consistent and high-quality healthcare services. The Government has submitted the Electronic Health Record Sharing System (Amendment) Bill 2025 to the Legislative Council to facilitate the development of eHealth Plus.