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Julie Zhang

Alice Li

Hong Kong is stepping up its efforts to invest in a cluster of biotech companies, positioning itself as a linchpin in Beijing’s push to reach new levels of innovation and challenge the United States for dominance in the global pharmaceutical market.
Hong Kong Investment Corporation (HKIC), which manages about US$8 billion in assets and is wholly owned by the Hong Kong government, has built a biotech and healthcare technology investment portfolio covering both traditional Chinese and Western drugs to help transform the city into a global biotech hub.
“We have a pretty diversified portfolio covering upstream [to] downstream [of the full healthcare value chain], including Chinese medicine, Western medicine, [products] ranging from prevention, diagnostic treatments and [surgical] operations,” HKIC CEO Clara Chan Ka-chai said at the Global Health Summit in Hong Kong on Friday.
She added that HKIC has been linking AI and large language model firms with drug discovery companies in its portfolio, making the process of finding new medicines “cheaper, faster and better”.
HKIC has invested in more than 200 companies “covering high growth, high impact sectors, including biotech and health tech”, Chan said at the event, adding that the internal rate of return on the portfolio since its inception was 14 per cent as of end-2025.
The discussion among medical professionals and political leaders at the summit about Hong Kong’s role came as the rivalry between China and US in the pharmaceutical and life sciences sector has intensified. Washington has rolled out a series of measures including the Biosecure Act in December, targeting China’s biotech ambitions.
On Wednesday, China’s Ministry of Commerce placed US DNA-authentication firm Applied DNA Sciences on a “countermeasures list”, accusing it of assisting US sanctions against Chinese companies over allegations of forced labour in western China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.
China’s innovative drug development is closing the gap with the US, said Lu Shun, a medical professor at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, at the event.
China was the first country to complete research on a drug resistance problem that affects about 15 per cent of lung cancer patients with an EGFR gene mutation, Lu said. “The drug’s indication has currently only been approved in China and is about two years ahead of the US.”
“In the field of antibody-drug conjugates, we are basically at the same level as the United States,” he added.

Meanwhile, Ko Wing-man, director of New Frontier GBA Healthcare, said that Hong Kong acts as a bridge between mainland manufacturing scale and global capital markets.
The city can “combine leading basic research … with mainland [China’s] enormous manufacturing capability, engineering excellence, and rapidly expanding innovation capacity”, said Ko, also a member of the Standing Committee, National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.
Ko added that Hong Kong could serve as “the international gateway for China’s life science industry”.
HKIC healthcare investment focuses include liquid biopsies, female health, and longevity science, she said. HKIC has also invested in Hong Kong-grown embodied-AI and surgical-robotics companies.
The fund has attracted more than US$8 of long-term market and international capital for every US$1 invested, Chan said. About 70 per cent of its investment capital has been put in early and growth-stage companies.
As of Friday, 11 companies in HKIC’s portfolio have listed in Hong Kong, with 30 more either having submitted or in the process of submitting their applications for an initial public offering in the city this year.
A surge of technology-driven listings, including healthtech and pharmaceutical innovators, has spurred Hong Kong’s bourse to overhaul its listing framework, aiming to better accommodate high-growth enterprises seeking access to international capital. The exchange is in the process of advancing reforms that would permit confidential filings and lower the market capitalisation threshold for eligible issuers.


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Hong Kong Investment Corporation is stepping up its efforts to position itself amid Beijing’s challenge to US pharmaceutical dominance


Hong Kong Investment Corporation is stepping up its efforts to position itself amid Beijing’s challenge to US pharmaceutical dominance.


As US-China pharma rivalry heats up, can Hong Kong’s US$8b fund be the global bridge?

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Hong Kong Investment Corporation is stepping up its efforts to position itself amid Beijing’s challenge to US pharmaceutical dominance

Hong Kong Investment Corporation is stepping up its efforts to position itself amid Beijing’s challenge to US pharmaceutical dominance