Drug giant AstraZeneca to open Hong Kong R&D centre by late 2024 at earliest with focus on cell and gene therapies

A research base that drug giant AstraZeneca plans to open in Hong Kong is expected to be ready by late 2024 at the earliest and will focus on developing cell and gene therapies.

The Anglo-Swedish drug maker on Friday said it hoped to expand the number of staff at the research and development centre, to be located in the Lok Ma Chau Loop technology hub near the mainland China border, to around 100 in the next five years.

To mark the establishment of the R&D centre and an incubator platform, Hong Kong iCampus, a plaque unveiling ceremony was held at the government headquarters in Admiralty on Friday. The R&D facility will be the first of its kind in the city to be set up by one of the world’s top 10 pharmaceutical firms.

Astrazeneca was attracted by the talent available in Hong Kong, an executive said. Photo: dpa

Leon Wang Lei, AstraZeneca’s China president, revealed that the centre would focus on research related to cell and gene therapies, considered to be next-generation therapeutics.

“Areas of the treatments could cover autoimmune diseases, oncology, rare diseases,” said Wang, also executive vice-president for the firm’s international region.

“A lot of clinical trials will also gradually be done in Hong Kong.”

AstraZeneca was among more than 30 foreign and mainland Chinese companies that recently pledged to invest about HK$30 billion in Hong Kong, in an effort coordinated by the government’s Office for Attracting Strategic Enterprises.

As the manufacture of products for cell and gene therapies did not take up a lot of space, setting up production lines in the city could also be considered, Wang said.

He said he expected that clinical research could be done in Hong Kong for medications developed on the mainland with the aim of selling overseas, as well as drugs developed abroad aimed at the Chinese market.

He said the R&D centre would move into the Lok Ma Chau Loop, where a new Hong Kong-Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Park would be located, in around late 2024 or early 2025.

“In the coming five years, we hope to gradually expand the size to around 100 people,” Wang said, noting that not all staff had to be recruited from Hong Kong.

The company will also set up an iCampus facility in the loop to serve as an incubator platform to help other companies.

Wang revealed that discussions with the government on setting up the R&D base took around a year.

He said the company was attracted by the talent available in Hong Kong, with the city boasting five universities among the world’s top 100.

“We were also attracted by the two world-leading medical schools, and world-class experts in clinical research and basic research,” he said.

Professor Tony Mok Shu-kam, chairman of the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s department of clinical oncology, said he expected more types of research could be done with the AstraZeneca facility being set up.

He said in the past a lot of clinical research to confirm the efficacy of existing drugs was carried out.

Professor Tony Mok said he hoped procedures could be simplified. Photo: Elizabeth Cheung

“Now we are taking one step backwards – we are going to do a bit more preclinical or the so-called novel discovery type of research in Hong Kong,” said Mok, a non-executive director of AstraZeneca.

As Hong Kong was striving to become a biomedical hub, in alignment with the directions set out in the nation’s 14th five-year plan, both Wang and Mok said the city would need to speed up clinical trial processes.

Mok said it could take around nine months to a year in Hong Kong to begin recruiting patients for clinical studies after establishing study plans, while in South Korea, it took only around three to four months to start research.

“If our procedures can be simplified … and can start recruiting patients within six months after receiving the protocol of studies, our competitiveness can be much higher,” Mok said.

Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po said at Friday’s ceremony that Hong Kong had five main advantages in developing life technologies, including a robust talent pool, fundraising advantages as an international financial centre and government policy support.