HK can attract pharmaceutical giants by having own drug regulatory system, health chief says while citing need for R&D for Covid

A key lesson Hong Kong should learn from the Covid-19 pandemic is the need to radically boost its research and development capabilities and consider setting up its own drug regulatory approval system, the health minister said, as he outlined his plans to transform the city into a biomedical innovation hub.

Giving the city a powerful body that could approve products for the market would also attract pharmaceutical firms that often carried out research where the regulator was based, Lo Chung-mau told the Post on Wednesday.