Hutchmed is coming home

Themis Qi

Hutchmed (China) (0013), a biotech firm under Hutchison Whampoa, plans to open a research and development center in Hong Kong as early as next year, returning to the city on the back of the government's latest supportive policies.

Founded in 2000, Hutchmed mainly operates in the mainland with facilities in Shanghai and joint ventures with state-owned firms.

Now, Hutchmed is looking at setting up a base at the Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks or Lok Ma Chau Loop and to this end has been holding talks with the HKSTP, chairman Simon To Chi-keung said.

He expects the new R&D center to be set up next year.

Hong Kong has been striving to attract tech firms to the city and is to launch a new "1+" mechanism to accelerate the approval of new drugs treating life-threatening diseases, which require only one certificate of pharmaceutical product with local clinical data.

To said Hutchmed is making the move to the city amid rising costs in the mainland, as Hong Kong is attractive to medical experts because of its flexible regime and low tax rates

The decision to return home comes after its new drug for refractory metastatic colorectal cancer called fruquintinib was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration earlier this month.

Hutchmed is confident of breaking into profit soon as the drug could bring about US$100 million (HK$780 million) in royalties from its sales partner Takeda. To also said Hutchmed doesn't need to raise more funds as it has sufficient cash for future expenses.