Donation advances anti-aging drug development in HK

HONG KONG, Mar 2, 2005 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology received 175 million HK dollars donation Wednesday from the Hong Kong Jockey to develop drugs against age- related diseases.

The university will apply part of a major donation and partner with the San Francisco-based Geron Corporation to establish a biotechnology company, TA Therapeutics Limited, in Hong Kong.

The new company will conduct researches, predominantly in Hong Kong, and develop telomerase activator drugs that restore the regenerative and functional capacity of cells to help fight against age-related and neurodegenerative diseases.

"This collaboration represents a successful partnership between academia and industry, working together for the benefit of global healthcare," said Paul Chu, President of the university.

"It also provides strong impetus to the local biotech sector, while contributing to the economic development and technological advancement of Hong Kong. HKUST is most grateful to the club for its generous support of this strategic initiative," he added.

"Using technology at the forefront of biomedicine, combined with traditional Chinese medicine, we have systematically screened more than 50 traditional Chinese medicines and successfully identified two active small molecule compounds with strong telomerase modulation activity," says Professor Nancy Ip, Head of the Department of Biochemistry of the university.

According to the university, in the next stage of this partnership, the two compounds will be put into preclinical development and, in due course, clinical trials.