HK can help 'bend the curve' on rising drug costs: FS

Financial Secretary Paul Chan opened the third International Bio-Computing Innovation Summit in Hong Kong on Friday, emphasizing the city's potential to reverse the rising cost of bringing new medicines to patients. He contrasted Moore's Law, which describes the decrease in computing power costs, with Eroom's Law, the upward trend in drug development costs over the past seven decades.

Chan identified three forces that could help bend this curve: the power of computing in biological research, the changing geography of drug innovation, and capital investment. Hong Kong could contribute to each of these forces by leveraging its strengths in computing, regulations accepting computer models, the growth of China's research and development network, and its robust capital markets.

Chan emphasized Hong Kong's role in bringing together models, patients, markets, and capital to reduce the time and cost of introducing new treatments to the market. He highlighted recent developments such as the Hong Kong Centre for Medical Products Regulation, improved data and biosample transfer, the establishment of a Life and Health Technology Research Institute, and the construction of a new medical school.

Chan concluded by expressing hope that Hong Kong could play a significant part in bending the curve of drug costs in the current decade.