The city offers numerous attractions and advantages, starting with its existing infrastructure, high business standards, pivotal location, and a talent pool of qualified professionals and researchers.
Hong Kong Trade Development Council figures show the total of new businesses in the city grew by 7 per cent last year, which represents more than 4,200 start-ups creating roughly 16,400 quality jobs. Much of this activity has been in the key areas of biotechnology, life sciences and artificial intelligence (AI), with relevant data showing that the local expenditure on R&D has almost doubled in absolute terms during the past decade.
Hong Kong is also home to notable universities and well-funded scientific research programmes, which can help to further the understanding and development of cutting-edge genome- and protein-based discoveries, leading to new methods for more personalised treatment of an increasing range of diseases.
“We knew that Hong Kong offers high-quality medical care and has internationally recognised physicians and clinical standards,” Daniel Siu, founder and CEO of Rainbow Genomics, says. “These are critical factors when innovating in precision medicine because we need both molecular big data and physician-provided clinical information to establish new diagnosis and treatment methods that can be applied in worldwide healthcare markets.”
Rainbow Genomics, which has strong links to technology innovations in the United States, Israel and many European countries, was established in 2016 to provide preventive health management programmes in Asia.
The company is a pioneer in the commercialisation of highly personalised preventive health care solutions to individuals. Its market coverage includes children’s and adult genetic abnormality, autism spectrum disorders and chronic diseases such as cancers and cardiovascular conditions that directly affect human longevity.
In 2023, the company launched Hong Kong’s first 7,000-protein testing to uncover hidden chronic illnesses. This involves proteomics, the study of thousands of human proteins associated with disease progressions.
Combined with clinical whole genome sequencing based on genomics, which is the study of a person’s entire DNA associated with diseases and lifestyle preferences, Rainbow Genomics’ clinical team can determine disease risks in thousands of common and rare disorders. Clinical solutions can then be used to treat or even reverse the symptoms in many chronic diseases.
Cancers and cardiovascular disorders represent over half of the causes of premature death for individuals aged between 50 and 75, with diabetes, respiratory, neurological and liver diseases accounting for the majority of the remaining deaths. Most of these diseases take a long time to develop.
If detected early, many patients have time to treat or even reverse the damage by adopting appropriate diet, exercise, weight loss and lifestyle improvement strategies, and sometimes without the use of medications. Unfortunately, most of these deleterious diseases progress with few or no symptoms. When discovered, they are typically in the later stages, making them very difficult to treat.
“With 7,000 proteins that are highly sensitive to pathological changes, we can now determine imminent development of deleterious diseases including heart attack, stroke, lung cancer, kidney disease and diabetes in the early stages,” Siu says.
“With millions of gene variations detected from the same patient’s own DNA, we can further confirm the disease risks and recommend nutritional, diet and exercise options guided by the personal genetic preferences of the patient. This also helps to sustain long-term weight loss and nutritional improvement specifically for preventing the very chronic disorder that is damaging the body.
“With personalised preventive health, Rainbow Genomics expects to substantially enhance the longevity of their patients, and simultaneously reduce government health care costs in the chronic disease markets it serves in Asia.”
Rainbow Genomics also offers an extensive range of complementary tests, including pharmacogenomic assessment – a test that informs doctors about 180 drugs that may cause “adverse drug reaction” for the patients.
“For example, some patients may need to take multiple drugs long term to control their high cholesterol and hypertension,” Siu says. “With so many medications available, the test can tell the patients and their doctors which drugs may cause abnormal metabolism leading to substantial side effects.
“Many of these medications must be used for a long time to be effective. Patients can choose the drugs that are both effective and safe, based on their personal genetics, to assure comfortable, long-term use of the medications to protect them from a heart attack or stroke.”
Driving everything, he says, is a commitment to providing clinically-validated and evidence-based molecular testing for Asian, Caucasian and mixed-race patients – an unusual but important mix of patients offered by Hong Kong. Overall, the company’s forecast for the next few years looks very positive, he says.
That upbeat outlook can be attributed to a number of factors. Firstly, interest in precision medicine and follow-up treatment continues to grow rapidly in the domestic and medical tourism markets in Asia, opening up all kinds of new channels.
Secondly, Hong Kong’s business and research ecosystem, and its go-ahead approach and ability to attract talent and investment make it an excellent platform for further expansion into other markets in Asia.
By tapping into the available know-how and resources, Rainbow Genomics has been able to push ahead with other initiatives that target specific needs. For instance, BlueSky Precision Medicine, a joint venture launched last year, was set up to focus on clinical assessment and treatment for autism spectrum disorders. Another collaboration is being formed to deliver personalised nutritional and lifestyle improvement based on each patient’s own proteins and DNA.
Siu says that more joint ventures are on the way and, with Hong Kong’s healthcare sector widely regarded as one of the best in the world, he is confident about the scope of future opportunities.
“With a critical mass and an established value chain in genomics, proteomics, AI, bioinformatics and new treatment methods, we expect Hong Kong to become a hub for innovation,” Siu says. “The healthcare ecosystem supports the development of personalised medicine for people in Asia and contributes to scientific progress on a worldwide scale.”