Hong Kong to become popular venue for pharmaceutical companies to conduct drug tests

The global pharmaceutical industry spends about US$50 billion a year on research and development. Thanks to its growing expertise in clinical trials, Hong Kong is gearing up to take a larger slice of it.

A combination of global regulatory changes and growing local competency has catapulted the city forward. In 2004, 221 clinical trials were conducted in Hong Kong; by 2008, that had risen to 360, and the number has stayed about constant each year since.

Members of the Hong Kong Association of the Pharmaceutical Industry, which represents major drug companies, conducted 11 trials in 1999, 79 in 2006, and 123 in 2008. The biggest area for research in Hong Kong is oncology, taking up 28 per cent of trials at Hong Kong University and 24 per cent at Chinese University.

Endocrinology is next, followed by gastroenterology and hepatology, and cardiology.

Most clinical trials are undertaken by pharmaceutical companies looking to prove a drug's efficacy and safety before bringing it to market. To ensure independence, they are conducted by academic centres, which charge fees but usually don't make profits, and are closely supervised by an ethics committee.