Hong kong doubling down on biotech incubation, what could trickle out
Posted by robin589 in Research & News - 1 points, 4 comments.
HKSTP is upgrading its Incu-Bio program and bragging about partnerships with amgen and boehringer ingelheim, basically trying to make hong kong a real life sciences hub instead of just a finance city. They are pitching a long incubation runway from idea to ipo, which honestly sounds nice compared to the usual fund-and-fade model a lot of accelerators run.
What caught my eye is the peptide and longevity angle buried in there, because any time big pharma parks at an incubator the early stage stuff tends to lean that direction. I am curious whether anything useful for the rest of us trickles out, or if it stays locked behind hong kong pricing and regulatory walls that never reach us. Also wondering how much of this is real lab work versus press release fluff.
Anyone here actually following what is coming out of that region, or is it mostly noise until something crosses the pacific?
Comments
- mel_c: Honestly the accelerator model sounds nice on paper, I have seen a few of those pitches and most of them are way more sizzle than steak, for what it is worth I would want to see what actually ships out of those partnerships in like 2 to 3 years before getting excited, the peptide stuff tends to be early stage though and even when something looks promising it usually takes forever to make it through trials, plus there is the whole regulatory wall thing you mentioned, I am curious too but I am not
- robin589: Yeah that is kinda where i sit too, the 2 to 3 year window is a fair call. I guess what got my hopes a little is the peptide angle since that space moves faster than most drug pipelines, but you are right that even fast is still slow once you add trials on top. I will keep an eye on it but not lose sleep if nothing pops for a while.
- raj353: Tbh I am with you on this one, accelerators love a good press release but the actual pipeline output is usually pretty thin for years after. The longevity angle is tempting to get hyped about though 👀 I will keep an eye on it but yeah, not expecting anything at my door anytime soon.
- robin589: Yeah that is kind of where i landed too, the press release to real product gap is usually years, and half the time the interesting stuff gets bought or shelved before it ever leaves the region. The longevity bait is what keeps me checking back though, fingers crossed something slips through.
Community discussion - research and educational context only. Not medical advice.