Hong Kong ophthalmic drugs pioneer sets its sights on cracking China’s US$20.2 billion eye disease treatment market

Name: Coronavirus able to replicate efficiently in eyes and could be 100 times more infectious than Sars
Uploaded: 2021-12-23T00:30:25.000Z
Duration: 4 min 19 s
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The Hong Kong-listed company aims to take a leading role in mainland China’s eye disease market as the country’s innovation ecosystem matures

According to China Insights Consultancy, the Chinese ophthalmic pharmaceutical market will grow from US$2.6 billion in 2019 to US$20.2 billion in 2030

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The Chinese ophthalmic pharmaceutical market is forecast to grow from US$2.6 billion in 2019 to US$20.2 billion in 2030. Photo: Shutterstock

Peggy Sito

Published: 8:30am, 23 Dec 2021Updated: 8:59am, 23 Dec 2021

Zhaoke Ophthalmology, a Hong Kong-listed company focusing on the development and sale of ophthalmic drugs, is aiming to take a leading role in mainland China’s eye disease market as the country’s innovation ecosystem matures.

“The business environment in China has been improving dramatically, with an evolving regulatory landscape and ample access to capital as China has pushed the development of innovative drugs,” said Benjamin Li Xiaoyi, chairman and chief executive of Zhaoke.

“Research and development is very capital intensive. When we started developing drugs more than 20 years ago, we invested with our own money.

“Now, there is ample access to capital for innovation, from private equity to stock markets.”

Li, who holds a PhD in pharmacology from the University of Illinois in Chicago, founded another company, Lee’s Pharmaceutical, in 1994, a long time before China began to focus on innovative drugs development. It was also many years before Hong Kong’s government pledged to turn the city into a biotech hub.

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Coronavirus able to replicate efficiently in eyes and could be 100 times more infectious than Sars

The company, which focuses on areas such as cardiovascular disease, women’s health, paediatrics and oncology, listed on the Growth Enterprise Board of the Hong Kong stock exchange in July 2002. It transferred to the main board some eight years later.