Last year George Clinical gained recognition by the Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF) legislation for their provision of good MPF benefits in Hong Kong.  The Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority (MPFA) awarded George Clinical their Good MPF Employer Award at a ceremony in Hong Kong where Evon Hui, Head of Business Operations, East Asia, accepted the award. Hui, who leads the George Clinical East Asia team which includes offices in Hong Kong, Malaysia, South Korea, Taiwan, Philippines, Singapore and operational teams in Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Hui recently attended a luncheon for companies who have won the Good MPF Employer Award and came away gratified that George Clinical was among strong peers from other industries.  Criteria for the assessment of the prestigious award include timeliness of company pension contribution, additional voluntary contribution by the employer, use of an electronic human resources and benefits platform and more.  The award makes a strong statement that George Clinical is a desirable employer in Hong Kong, Hui believes.

“It is the high quality of our people that make our exceptional service delivery and pragmatic trial solutions possible,” Glenn Kerkhof, Executive Chairman of George Clinical said. “George Clinical has an extensive track record in the delivery of clinical trial services to the highest scientific standards in Hong Kong and around the world.

The MPFA is a statutory body established September 17, 1998 under section 6 of the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Ordinance (MPFSO) (Chapter 485, Laws of Hong Kong). The mission of the organization is to regulate and supervise privately managed provident fund schemes; educate the working population about saving for retirement and the role of the MPF System as one of the pillars supporting retirement living; and to lead improvements to provident fund schemes to make them more efficient and user-friendly, and better meet the needs of the working population.

“We thank the MPFA for the important recognition of our work towards being the employer of choice for the best and brightest in the clinical research industry,” Kerkhof stated.

With Hong Kong serving as a major international commercial hub for many industries, those looking to conduct trials in the region can benefit from the presence of a global firm such as George Clinical who is particularly adept at large-scale, long-term follow-up studies showing the firm’s scientific leadership model enhances engagement with investigators.

“Hong Kong has demonstrated they can help speed up development of new treatments with a number of clinical trials,” said Hui.  “The Phase I center conducted a Phase 1 trial for a new Hepatitis C drug in 2015, commissioned by a US-based pharmaceutical company in a very timely and efficient manner.”

“The whole process–from start to the end–was only eight months. If the same trial was organized on the mainland, it might not even have been initiated by the time it was completed here,” Dr. Tommy Cheung Tsang, deputy medical director at HKU’s center said. “Our participation speeded up the new drug application for the CFDA by approximately one year.”

Hong Kong is a world-class city in a very small geographic area with dense population. It’s convenient to travel within the city with a very established public transportation system. This has certainly facilitated studies with frequent clinic visits, where patient compliance to site visit/ drug administration is important, Hui noted.

Hong Kong should be strongly considered by pharmaceutical and biotech firms due to the efficient regulatory and ethics approval framework for clinical trials of approximately three to four months, well established intellectual property protection legislation and very efficient health care system.  Hong Kong is ranked first in the world according to the Bloomberg Health Care Efficiency Index with highest life expectancy of 84.6 years.