Commissioned by the Food and Health Bureau of the Hong Kong SAR Government, CUHK has established the Phase I Clinical Trial Centre (CTC) to strengthen the clinical research and development of new drugs in Hong Kong and Asia. The opening ceremony, held on 18 December, was officiated by Prof. Joseph J.Y. Sung (2nd right), Vice-Chancellor, CUHK; Prof. Jiang Ji (2nd left), director, Phase I Unit, Clinical Pharmacology Research Center, Peking Union Medical College Hospital; Prof. Francis K.L. Chan (1st right), Dean, Faculty of Medicine, CUHK; and Prof. Anthony T.C. Chan (1st left), chief director, Phase I Clinical Trial Centre, CUHK.

Located at the Prince of Wales Hospital, CTC is established with the following objectives: to become an internationally recognized centre of excellence for the development of new drugs by recruiting patients with special medical needs and healthy volunteers to participate in research; to boost the competitiveness of Hong Kong in drug research and development by fostering partnerships with academic institutions and the pharmaceutical industry in clinical research; and to promote knowledge transfer and education amongst health care professionals in early phase drug development in Hong Kong and the region.

The development of a new drug has to undergo at least seven years of clinical trials in human subjects, requiring the participation of a large number of volunteers at different stages of research. Phase I clinical trial is the first and a critical step in this process that brings drugs from the laboratory to clinical application. It helps to determine the safest and most biologically effective dosage of new drugs, facilitating the large-scale evaluation in phase II and III trials.

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