Secretary for Health Prof Lo Chung-mau met National Medical Products Administration Deputy Commissioner Xu Jinghe today to have an in-depth exchange on the regulatory regime and reform of drugs and medical devices.

Prof Lo said that the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area has been ushering in immense opportunities for medical and biotechnological developments in recent years.

The National 14th Five-Year Plan, he stressed, has expressed clear support to develop Hong Kong into an international innovation and technology hub while biomedicine and medical innovation represent immense new quality productive forces.

The Resolution of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee on Further Deepening Reform Comprehensively to Advance Chinese Modernization adopted by the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee also pointed out the need to deepen medical and healthcare reform and to support the development mechanisms for innovative drugs and medical devices.

Prof Lo highlighted that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government strenuously works in line with the national objective of deepening medical and healthcare reform by pursuing innovation in the medical field.

“While integrating into the national development, the Hong Kong SAR will capitalise on its unique advantages of international influence and professions to the fullest to develop the city into an international health and medical innovation hub, thereby enabling the innovative medical technologies to go global and attract foreign investment and developing new quality productive forces in biomedicine.”

He added that Hong Kong will strive to give full play to its strengths to serve the country’s needs amid the comprehensive deepening of reform.

While introducing the approval mechanism for drugs and medical devices, Prof Lo emphasised that the Hong Kong SAR Government will expedite the reform of the approval mechanism for drugs and medical devices to meet the institutional requirement necessary for the health and medical innovation development.

The purpose for doing so, he explained, is to strengthen the drug approval capability of the Hong Kong SAR; and take forward preparatory work for legislating for the statutory regulation of medical devices to dovetail with the timetable for the establishment of the Hong Kong Centre for Medical Products Regulation.