At least 17 international biotechnology companies have established operations in Hong Kong this year, with several having set up Asia-Pacific headquarters in the city — drawn by its technological strengths, global access, and convenience for cross-border research.

Speaking at a briefing organized by investment promotion agency Invest Hong Kong on Thursday, Sanja Tomovska, co-founder and CEO of Swiss diagnostics company Quant Biomarkers, said Hong Kong’s Northern Metropolis, a planned innovation hub covering one-third of the city’s land area, represents a big opportunity for growth.

Quant Biomarkers, which focuses on early diagnosis of chronic diseases and is currently in the clinical validation stage, has set up its Asia-Pacific headquarters at the Hong Kong-Shenzhen Innovation and Technology Park (HSITP), an 87-hectare site within the Northern Metropolis. The company has secured HK$6 million ($766,000) in milestone-based funding under the park’s Ignite@HSITP program.

Tomovska said the company plans to establish a laboratory in Hong Kong to facilitate cross-border research and development, with the potential to scale up manufacturing over time. During the funding phase, the company expects to hire up to 15 researchers locally, with the number to grow after commercialization.

The decision to base operations in Hong Kong was also driven by the city’s role as a gateway to the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, a market of about 86 million people, she said. In addition to commercial opportunities, the area offers access to clinical talent necessary for product development.

“We are seeing us fully embedded in the whole ecosystem that the Northern Metropolis and the Greater Bay Area are offering,” Tomovska said. The 11-city cluster provides an integrated platform that brings together innovations in biotech, she added.

“Hong Kong is offering an infrastructure to scale across the whole Asia,” she said. “It sits at the crossroads of science, investment and global access.”

Similarly, French clinical-stage biotech company OncoNex-Remunity Therapeutics established its Asia-Pacific headquarters at the HSITP this year. Alain Vertes, the company’s co-founder and CEO, said it aims to set up a research base in Hong Kong and recruit local scientists to conduct preclinical and clinical studies.

“What we wanted to do is to extend our reach to Asia, and for many reasons, Hong Kong really started to be on top of our agenda,” Vertes said. “Hong Kong is a great place for business, particularly for Western companies, because this is a place where East meets West.”

He added that Hong Kong’s proximity to the Chinese mainland, home to “outstanding manufacturers”, provides access to potential partners, especially during the clinical trial phase.

Andy Wong Wai-cheuk, InvestHK’s head of innovation and technology as well as life and health sciences, said 17 overseas and mainland biotech companies have established a presence in Hong Kong this year through the agency. He expects the total to reach 30 to 40 by the end of the year.

More than 60 percent of biotech companies he engaged with said Hong Kong’s clinical trial capabilities are a key attraction, Wong said. Meanwhile, there’s a growing interest in setting up production bases in the city, driven in part by new land supply from the Northern Metropolis.

Wong said Hong Kong will participate in this year’s Swiss Biotech Day, which opens on May 4 in Basel, Switzerland, after four of the companies it engaged with at last year’s two-day event — including Quant Biomarkers and OncoNex-Remunity Therapeutics — set up operations at the HSITP.

Contact the writer at irisli@chinadailyhk.com