Officials from the Chinese University say Hong Kong's ambitions of becoming an international centre for drug development have been given a major boost after its facility for collecting, storing and processing biological samples was recognised as meeting stringent international standards.

CUHK said multinational pharmaceutical companies are keen to make use of the facility, known as a biobank, after it received accreditation from the American Association for Laboratory Accreditation, demonstrating that it meets global standards for use in drug research and development.

The biobank, located at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Sha Tin, is only the second in the Asia-Pacific region to receive accreditation after a facility in South Korea.

"This is an important milestone for Hong Kong," said Francis Chan, the dean of medicine at the Chinese University. “Without this international accreditation, in the past, many of the new drug developments were done in the United States or Europe.

"Now, with this international accreditation, it signifies that Hong Kong has the potential and the capability of meeting their very high standards for drug development starting from the very early stage," he said.

Chan said many multinational pharmaceutical companies have been approaching the CUHK biobank to negotiate the possibility of developing drugs in fields such as cancers and diabetes.

He said CUHK was working with the Hospital Authority on developing further international-standard biobank facilities, with the Hong Kong Children's Hospital in Kai Tak eyed as a second site.

“The Prince of Wales Hospital biobank is only the starting point. It signifies that we have got the ability and the potential to further develop this biobank into a territory-wide system," he said.