The second International Healthcare Week (IHW), organised by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) and supported by a wide range of healthcare sector partners, runs from 16 to 31 May in Hong Kong, leveraging the city’s strategic role as an innovation and investment healthcare hub in Asia.
With the theme of Reimagining the Future of Healthcare, the third Asia Summit on Global Health (ASGH) runs in Hong Kong on 17 and 18 May. The conference assembles stakeholders – from healthcare experts to renowned academia and influential business leaders, together with key industry players, innovative start-ups, investors and policymakers – from around the world to exchange insights, explore opportunities and collaborate on the diverse and dynamic healthcare sector.
Boasting the longest life expectancy in the world, Hong Kong generates strong demand for medical and health services and products. Hong Kong company Enlighten developed a wireless home-care system to ensure elderly people could easily call for assistance. With the help of the Hong Kong Trade Development Council's (HKTDC) Transformation Sandbox (T-box) programme, they successfully expanded into the UK market.
Interest in healthcare and medical developments continues to grow, as economies worldwide recover from the COVID-19 crisis. Market leaders and industry players again congregated at the HKTDC Hong Kong International Medical and Healthcare Fair showcasing medical trends and innovations. Now in its 13th edition, the fair continued to draw an international crowd, including representatives from the Consulates General of Canada, Czech Republic, Israel, and the United States. The physical-online hybrid format, in which the event was conducted, encouraged both on-site and online interactions.
Hong Kong earlier this month hosted its second Asia Summit on Global Health (ASGH), as the city continues to garner international attention after further loosening COVID-19 restrictions. This year’s theme – “Charting a New Course in Healthcare through Collaboration” resonated strongly with Dr Zsuzsanna Jakab (main picture), Deputy Director-General of the World Health Organization. In her video speech at the event’s opening session, Dr Jakab said the pandemic had infected more than 600 million people globally and claimed 6.5 million lives, so there was an “opportunity and, indeed, an obligation to learn from this pandemic” and accelerate progress on universal healthcare through concerted efforts in science, research, innovation, data and digital technologies.
A serial entrepreneur based in Hong Kong for more than 20 years, France-born Sophie Martineau set up her medical supplies business Aquila Healthcare under the brand AquilaVIE in 2020. The launch was in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, when demand for personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks rapidly outpaced supply.
Positioned as Asia’s thought-leadership event on health innovation and investment, last year’s inaugural Asia Summit on Global Health (ASGH) featured more than 70 internationally renowned speakers and attracted more than 21,000 on-site and online participants from 54 countries and regions. More than 200 one-to-one meetings matching funds with global healthcare projects were arranged during the event.
A professor at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) has established a firm, EggLogics Limited (EggLogics), that has developed patented technology to increase the success rate for in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) through egg “recharging”, bringing new hope to families troubled by fertility problems.
As an international financial centre, Hong Kong is an ideal development base for many overseas enterprises – and the city’s attraction is enhanced by the comprehensive protection its intellectual property laws provide. Some well-known Japanese chain drugstores have chosen to open stores in Hong Kong, and have applied for trademark registration to enhance consumers' recognition of their brands.
Taking health maintenance beyond just a booking service for medical appointments, MixCare Health – one of the 10 winners in the 2022 Start-up Express entrepreneurship development programme organised by the Hong Kong Trade Development Council (HKTDC) – has developed a comprehensive healthcare platform.
A team from the Chinese University of Hong Kong’s Faculty of Medicine has developed patent technologies that can help pharmaceutical companies improve vaccine effectiveness of their products and efficiency of developing vaccines. The start-up has already signed cooperation agreements with a number of pharmaceutical companies to co-develop vaccines.
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