News

Professor Bian Zhaoxiang, Associate Vice-President (Clinical Chinese Medicine) and Director of the Centre for Chinese Herbal Medicine Drug Development (CDD) at Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU), has secured funding support from the Research, Academic and Industry Sectors One-plus (RAISe+) Scheme for a project on a new Chinese herbal medicine to treat functional constipation in the elderly.

The project involves the development of a drug candidate called CDD-2101 by Professor Bian's team at CDD. The new drug combines a traditional Chinese herbal formulation with advanced technologies, and the research and manufacturing have been conducted in compliance with international standards. The Investigational New Drug Application for CDD-2101 has been successfully submitted to the US Food and Drug Administration in 2023, and approval has been granted to conduct a phase I clinical trial of the new drug in the US. The RAISe+ funding will further support the clinical trial development to make the drug available to all patients in need.

Another project awarded under the RAISe+ Scheme is led by Professor Terence Lau, Interim Chief Innovation Officer of HKBU. This project, called Advanced Point-of-care Molecular Systems for Clinical and Non-Clinical Applications, is an innovative diagnostic system with transformational impact. The platform can achieve fast, accurate, and fully automated detection of more than 40 targets, allowing timely identification of disease-causing pathogens within an hour.

Professor Alex Wai, President and Vice-Chancellor of HKBU, commented that the funding from the RAISe+ Scheme exemplifies the University's commitment to advancing cutting-edge research and translating it into applications that directly benefit society. This achievement underscores HKBU's dedication to driving innovations in Health and Drug Discovery, one of the University's key research clusters.

About RAISe+

The RAISe+ Scheme was launched in October 2023 by the Innovation and Technology Commission (ITC). The scheme aims to unleash the potential of local universities in the transformation and commercialisation of research and development outcomes, and facilitate relevant collaboration among the government, industries, universities, and research sectors.

Please click here for more details.