Home-grown Clearbridge Medical Group opens first centre in Hong Kong
Hong Kong
SINGAPORE-BASED Clearbridge Medical Group (CBMG), whose parent company is also behind acclaimed Singapore medical start-up Clearbridge BioMedics, opened its first centre in Hong Kong on Friday as part of its regional expansion.
The CBMG Hong Kong centre is parent company Clearbridge Health's first step overseas, and will offer clinical patient care and deploy precision and data-driven medical technologies.
It will also have strategic partnerships with accredited laboratories and medical technology providers from other countries, including the US, Germany, Australia and Japan.
CBMG intends to launch its metabolomics testing service (studies carried out for the detection of cancer) in Hong Kong. Other products in the company's pipeline include non-invasive diagnostic testing services targeting cancers.
The new Hong Kong centre is a big move for the Clearbridge group and the beginning of its expansion plans within Asia, executive director and group chief executive officer Jeremy Yee told The Business Times.
"We believe Hong Kong has a lot of potential. Lots of mainland Chinese patients are currently being seen in Hong Kong. We are not afraid of venturing outside of Singapore; we have plans to be in almost every Asian country we can find," said Mr Yee.
Clearbridge is looking to establish itself in the Philippines, Burma, Malaysia and Indonesia, and is also currently looking for partners in mainland China, he added.
CBMG's new facility was welcomed by Invest Hong Kong associate director-general of investment promotion, Mr Charles Ng.
Invest Hong Kong is a government department established in 2000 to attract foreign direct investment and support overseas and mainland businesses to set up or expand in the city. It helped CBMG network with local partners in the medical industry.
The CBMG centre "will not only bring us innovative products, services and technologies in the healthcare sector but also add to the diversity of our biotech cluster", said Mr Ng.
Clearbridge's move to Hong Kong comes in the wake of similar ventures overseas by other Singapore healthcare providers.
These include Raffles Medical Group, which has three medical centres in Hong Kong and one in Shanghai, and IHH Healthcare, which earlier this year opened Gleneagles Hong Kong Hospital, a 500-bed multi-speciality private tertiary hospital in Hong Kong Island South.
Heading overseas was a practical decision for Clearbridge, driven by economics, said Mr Yee.
He added: "To propel growth, we have got to be realistic that Singapore is a small island with only about 5.5 million people. For good clinical care, cost becomes a problem. If I can go overseas, use economies of scale and lower costs for all patients, wouldn't that be good?"
