Secretary for Health meets Deputy Commissioner of National Medical Products Administration (with photos)

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     The Secretary for Health, Professor Lo Chung-mau, met with Deputy Commissioner of the National Medical Products Administration Dr Xu Jinghe today (April 1) to have an in-depth exchange on the regulatory regime and reform of drugs and medical devices.

     Professor Lo said, "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 has expressed clear support to develop Hong Kong into an international innovation and technology hub. Biomedicine and medical innovation are directly related to people's life and health and also 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.

"The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) 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 HKSAR 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. Hong Kong will strive to give full play to our strengths to serve the country's needs amid the comprehensive deepening of reform."

     While introducing the approval mechanism for drugs and medical devices, Professor Lo emphasised, "The HKSAR 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, such as extending the '1+' mechanism to cover all new drugs, including vaccines and advanced therapy products, since November 1 last year; preparing for the establishment of the Hong Kong Centre for Medical Products Regulation (CMPR) to progress towards the 'primary evaluation' approach, with a view to fully strengthening the drug approval capability of the HKSAR; and taking forward preparatory work for legislating for the statutory regulation of medical devices to dovetail with the timetable for the establishment of the CMPR."

     The Director of Health, Dr Ronald Lam, and representatives from the Health Bureau and the Department of Health also attended the meeting today.

Ends/Tuesday, April 1, 2025
Issued at HKT 17:15

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The Secretary for Health, Professor Lo Chung-mau (second left), meets with Deputy Commissioner of the National Medical Products Administration Dr Xu Jinghe (second right) today (April 1) to have an in-depth exchange on the regulatory regime and reform of drugs and medical devices.

The Secretary for Health, Professor Lo Chung-mau, met with Deputy Commissioner of the National Medical Products Administration Dr Xu Jinghe today (April 1). Photo shows Professor Lo (front row, fourth left); Dr Xu (front row, fourth right); the Director of Health, Dr Ronald Lam (front row, third right), and other attendees of the meeting.