{
  "id": 18437767,
  "title": "HK can help 'bend the curve' on rising drug costs: FS",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/11/06/hk-can-help-bend-the-curve-on-rising-drug-costs-fs",
  "topic": "world",
  "section": "World",
  "published": "2026-11-06T03:41:06.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "RTHK English",
    "slug": "rthk-english",
    "url": "https://news.rthk.hk/rthk/en/component/k2/1876797-20261106.htm"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Financial Secretary Paul Chan opened the third International Bio-Computing Innovation Summit in Hong Kong, emphasizing the city's potential role in addressing the rising cost of bringing new medicines to patients. Chan contrasted Moore's Law, which describes the decrease in computing power costs, with Eroom's Law, which notes the increasing costs of drug development over the past seven decades. Eroom's Law refers to the phenomenon where the cost of bringing a new drug to patients roughly doubles every nine years, leaving promising treatments unfunded and patients without better medical options.\n\nChan identified three key forces that could help bend this curve: computing power for biological research, the changing geography of drug innovation, and capital investment and utilization. Computing power has the potential to transform research, as gene sequencing becomes more affordable and AI enables scientists to design molecules, antibodies, and enzymes through modeling and writing genetic code. Moreover, regulators are increasingly accepting evidence from computer models and alternatives to animal testing.\n\nThe changing geography of drug innovation is also a crucial factor, as China has become an indispensable part of global research and development networks. Overseas licensing deals for innovative drugs from China reached nearly US$140 billion in total value last year, nearly ten times the level in 2021. Lastly, capital investment plays a significant role in the success of biotechnology firms. Hong Kong has become the world's second-largest fundraising center for biotechnology since listing reforms for pre-revenue biotech firms in 2018.\n\nChan emphasized Hong Kong's role in bringing together models, patients, markets, and capital to reduce the time and cost of bringing new treatments to market. The city has taken several steps to achieve this goal, including establishing the Hong Kong Centre for Medical Products Regulation, facilitating data and biosamples movement across borders, constructing a new Life and Health Technology Research Institute, and building a third medical school with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Chan concluded by urging Hong Kong to play a part in bending the curve of rising drug costs during this decade.",
  "summary": "Financial Secretary Paul Chan on Friday said Hong Kong can play a key role in reversing the rising cost of bringing new medicines to patients, as he opened the third International Bio-Computing Innovation Summit in the SAR. In his opening speech, Chan drew on two contrasting \"laws\" to frame the challenge facing the life sciences industry. Moore's Law describes how the cost of computing power has…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}