Dr Lung Hong-lok
Assistant Professor, Department of Chemistry, Hong Kong Baptist University
CEO of BP InnoMed Limited
"Be humble to keep learning is my motto. I keep exploring ways to commercialise the innovative oncology technology, as we are still engaged at the early stage of drug development," said Dr Lung.
Dr Lung Hong-lok is an Assistant Professor from the Department of Chemistry at HKBU as well as the Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer of BP InnoMed Limited (BPI). He is recognised for developing a new EBV-specific targeted therapy and commercialising the innovative cancer research discoveries. BPI has developed a novel drug which has the potential to become a next-generation treatment for cancers associated with Epstein–Barr virus (EBV).
Career aspiration
When Dr Lung entered the field of nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) research, he aimed to commercialise this pioneer technology. Over the years, his breakthrough in research brings potential for commercialisation of the oncology technology. Recently, Dr Lung and his biotech company, BPI, have been awarded the Best Public Communicator at 2020 Bridging Research from Academia to Cancer Entrepreneurship (BRACE) Award Venture Competition by The Asian Fund for Cancer Research which acknowledged his achievement in research and technology.
Kick-start the business
Dr Lung was encouraged and supported by Prof Gary Wong Ka-leung (Professor and Head of Department of Chemistry at HKBU). They founded BP InnoMed Limited, an HKBU spin-off company, in 2018 to further work on the project of making anti-EBV drugs. "BP" stands for "Best Partners", a collaborative effort between the co-founders, Prof Wong and Dr Lung. With support from Technology Start-up Support Scheme for Universities (TSSSU)*, BPI has been developing novel drugs for imaging and inhibiting the growth of EBV-associated tumors. It addresses unmet needs in the community all over the world. The breakthrough targeted to provide an alternative means other than using the highly toxic chemo drugs and radiation for NPC treatment; in the long run, the new NPC drugs could relieve social burden of our society.
Grasp market opportunities
EBV is one of the most common viruses in humans, having infected more than 90% of the human population worldwide. It is widely known that the virus plays a key role in several cancers such as nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC), which is highly prevalent in Hong Kong and southern China. However, there is no anti-EBV drug in the market. BPI's innovative cancer research discoveries would embrace the market niche. The drug has great potential to offer advanced cancer patients a chance to survive. In 2020, BPI was admitted to the Incu-Bio Programme offered by the Hong Kong Science &Technology Parks Corporation, and a laboratory has been established there for preclinical analysis of the anti-EBV drugs.
Strong team and external support
Various unforeseeable challenges are bound to occur during the drug development process. Not only do they have a strong and well-established in-house scientific team, the company also has connections to world-renowned experts in chemical biology, medicinal chemistry and synthetic organic chemistry. "We overcame challenges one by one with the valuable expertise and advice from external consultants. I have learnt a lot in pharmacokinetics, toxicology, formulation etc." Dr Lung admired.
From laboratory to market - Commercialising the research
"I believe that it is much more than generating publications, reproducibility and modification lay the foundation of technology. I was delighted to take my first step in commercialising research discoveries. I look forward to solving more complex problems in R&D with my team and experts, and building partnerships with industry to foster business and bring impact to the community." Dr Lung concluded with an insight to share with HKBU academia and researchers that "To make the world a better place, it is important to transform your academic successes into an impactful real product."
* HKBU TSSSU aims to bring R&D results from campus to real world, by encouraging more entrepreneurial activities at the University and facilitating more commercial development of HKBU's intellectual property rights (IPR) and technology developed at the University. It is a "company start-up" scheme designed to encourage spin-off companies to commercialise the IPR and technologies developed at HKBU.