Health official says current mechanism can approve drugs within 150 days, but authorities hope to bring it down to 100 days
Hong Kong health authorities aim to introduce a fast-track approval mechanism for life-saving drugs that can treat severe or rare diseases, a move that could reduce the current system’s processing time by one-third.
Secretary for Health Lo Chung-mau said on Thursday that the fast-track arrangement could help to respond to health emergencies such as a pandemic where infections spread quickly. The minister was elaborating on health measures outlined in the latest policy address a day earlier.
“The purpose of the fast-track drug approval mechanism is to address critical medical needs,” he said.
“When an outbreak of a novel infectious disease led to the Covid-19 pandemic, all countries adopted a fast-track approval mechanism for new vaccines and drugs … facing the tsunami of a new infectious disease, everyone was looking for the best way to cope.”
