The Hong Kong government's Office for Attracting Strategic Enterprises (OASES) has achieved further results, as OASES signed agreements with a new batch of enterprises on the 9th, involving more than a dozen companies. Sources indicate that the list includes three of the world's top ten pharmaceutical giants: the UK's GlaxoSmithKline, Switzerland's Roche, and Germany's Merck. Other industry leaders such as Swiss fintech company Polkadot and U.S. creative company Vobile are also among them.
According to Ta Kung Pao, market insiders pointed out that, together with AstraZeneca, which settled in Hong Kong the year before last, four of the top ten pharmaceutical companies in the world have now established themselves in Hong Kong. This is poised to inject new momentum into the economy and further strengthen Hong Kong's status as a benchmark for the global medical industry.
The Policy Address mentions that under "One Country, Two Systems," Hong Kong enjoys the unique advantages of "bringing in" and "going out." In terms of "bringing in," the government will attract more pharmaceutical companies to set up operations, conduct clinical trials and treatments for orphan drugs, advanced oncology drugs, and advanced therapeutic products.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong's efficient clinical trial platform complies with international standards and is recognized by international regulatory authorities such as China's National Medical Products Administration, the European Medicines Agency, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. This can reduce the need for repeated trials and greatly accelerate the drug registration process.
The three major international pharmaceutical companies introduced this time each have their own distinctive specialties. For example, GlaxoSmithKline's products cover anti-infectives, central nervous system, respiratory, gastrointestinal, and vaccine fields. Roche, with a history of more than 120 years, offers medicines in oncology, virology, immunology, infectious diseases, and is also a pioneer in in vitro diagnostics, oncological tissue diagnostics, and diabetes management. Merck, with over 350 years of history, focuses on drugs for oncology, neurological diseases, diabetes, and thyroid disorders, and its subsidiary Merck Serono's core research centers on targeted cancer therapies.