Jonathan Symonds, the Chairman of global pharmaceutical giant GSK, called for a comprehensive strategy to integrate health data in Hong Kong, in order to promote the city as a biomedical hub. Speaking at BIOHK 2023, a four-day biotechnology and life sciences conference held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai on Wednesday, Symonds emphasized the potential of the Greater Bay Area to create a data-led science ecosystem.
Symonds, who previously served as the deputy group chairman of HSBC Holdings (NYSE:HSBC) from 2018 to 2020 and co-chaired the external advisory board for UK Life Sciences Vision in 2021, highlighted the need for a master plan for storing health data. This, he said, would support Hong Kong's ambition to become a life science "super connector" between mainland China and the rest of the world.
The GSK Chairman expressed that the future industry's lifeblood will be through applying science to data, rather than applying data to biology. He further asserted that integrated data is crucial for both clinical application and diagnostic research and should be supported by tissue and blood banks capable of carrying out functional genomics.
Symonds believes that a rich set of health data can pave the way for improvements in making diagnoses and developing artificial intelligence and digital tools for use in genomic medicine. However, he warned that such an endeavor would require "a very significant investment."
In December last year, the government listed life and health technology as one of the industries for further development under the Innovation and Technology Development Blueprint. The Greater Bay Area, which combines nine cities in Guangdong province with Hong Kong and Macau, is already playing a key role in this field.
Symonds also shared insights from his experience with UK Life Sciences Vision in 2021. The British government had launched a large research programme to build a data set of 10 to 20 per cent of the country's population with deep phenotyping and genotyping. This data, he explained, could be used to develop cost-effective pathways for care, reducing the burden on the healthcare system.
According to Symonds, three fundamentals are needed to create a health system that supports modern science: world-class science supported by health data, access to new treatments and technologies, and a thriving business environment. He argued that while the bay area possesses these assets, gaps among them need to be bridged to build a data-led science ecosystem.
Symonds concluded by suggesting that Hong Kong should ensure its scientific infrastructure caters to companies of all sizes, experience levels and origins. Seamless integration of scientific trials, regulatory processes and academic collaborations are needed to access the science base and carry out deep scientific work around genomics. He emphasized that this is not just a conceptual plan but requires a lot of hard work.
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