The agency’s chief pharmacist, William Chui Chun-ming, said on Thursday that doctors would no longer have to go through the assessment at their own hospitals and would be able to apply directly to headquarters to introduce new drugs from mid-November.
“The two-tier evaluation has possibly slowed down the process. We believe it is unnecessary,” Chui told a radio program.
“Instead, we can centralize the assessment … It only takes five months to introduce a new drug into the formulary.”
Under current assessment arrangements, it takes about 10 months to incorporate a new drug into public hospital formularies.
The pharmaceutical companies require doctors to submit an application, which is submitted to public hospitals for review before it reaches the agency’s headquarters.
According to the new arrangement, the authority will also accept applications from companies without going through doctors.
