Hong Kong gives biotech a chance

When he meets with local bureaucrats and potential investors, Ricky Chiu, CEO of the Hong Kong start-up Phase Scientific, says the question they most often ask is, “When are you going to be profitable?” In California, where he lived for 18 years, investors typically focused on a start-up’s technology and management team. “Here, it’s more practical,” he says. Before he moved back to Hong Kong last year to head the company he had launched there in 2017, Chiu was well aware that his birthplace was not home to many sophisticated venture capitalists. But he saw something else. The local government’s perennial indifference toward biotech had gone. “They want success stories,” Chiu says. “A lot of people here will pull together to ensure you are successful.” He wagered that Phase, which manufactures diagnostic kits and provides sample preparation services, stood a good chance in a city better known for finance and