Hong Kong hospitals can save at least HK$24 million a year with new drug vetting system

Hong Kong’s streamlined drug approval system could help public hospitals save up to HK$24 million (US$3.1 million) a year on medications targeting a single rare disease while offering pharmaceutical firms one-on-one consultations to speed up the process, health authorities have said.

The Department of Health also said on Monday it hoped extra information sessions on the “1+” drug approval system, including seminars starting next week and workshops beginning in June, would further raise the efficiency of the process.

Starting in September, one-on-one consultations would also be arranged for pharmaceutical firms that hoped to seek a preliminary review and advice under the simplified system.

“In the past, drugs were expensive as there was no competition … But with the 1+ system, drugs from the mainland and overseas could be registered in Hong Kong more quickly,” Hospital Authority chief pharmacist William Chui Chun-ming said. “There is competition … which could lower the drug prices.”

Eleven drugs, mostly targeting cancer and rare diseases, have been approved for registration in Hong Kong under the 1+ system, launched in November 2023. Five had been or would be included in the authority’s drug formulary, meaning they could be used for public hospital patients.

Chui revealed that the prices of those drugs had dropped significantly after negotiations by a panel under the authority. They included a 30 per cent decrease in the price of a drug for paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria, a rare life-threatening disease in which red blood cells break apart prematurely.

Chui said the drop had also prompted another company to offer a 37 per cent price cut of another medication that targeted the same disease.