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Article History

Received: 19 December 2024

Accepted: 13 August 2025

First Online: 27 August 2025

Competing interests

: E.Y.F.W. has received research grants from the Health Bureau, the Hong Kong Research Grants Council, Narcotics Division, Security Bureau, Social Welfare Department, Labour and Welfare Bureau of the Government of the Hong Kong SAR and National Natural Science Foundation of China; serves on member of Core Team for Expert Group on Drug Registration of Pharmacy and Poisons Board, and is the director of Advance Data Analytics for Medical Science (ADAMS) Limited (HK); outside the submitted work. F.T.T.L. has been supported by the RGC Postdoctoral Fellowship under the Hong Kong Research Grants Council and has received research grants from the Health Bureau of the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, outside the submitted work. I.C.K.W. has received research grants from Amgen, Janssen, GSK, Novartis, Pfizer, Bayer and Bristol-Myers Squibb and Takeda, Institute for Health Research in England, European Commission, National Health and Medical Research Council in Australia, The European Union's Seventh Framework Programme for research, technological development, Research Grants Council Hong Kong and Health and Medical Research Fund Hong Kong; consulting fee from IQVIA and WHO; payment for expert testimony for Appeal Court in Hong Kong; serves on advisory committees for Member of Pharmacy and Poisons Board; Member of the Expert Committee on Clinical Events Assessment Following COVID-19 Immunization; Member of the Advisory Panel on COVID-19 Vaccines of the Hong Kong Government; is the non-executive director of Jacobson Medical in Hong Kong; is the Founder and Director of Therakind Limited (UK), ADAMS Limited (HK), Asia Medicine Regulatory Affairs (AMERA) Services Limited and OCUS Innovation Limited (HK, Ireland and UK). C.L.C. received research grants and the honorarium from Amgen, research grant support from HMRF, and the honorarium from Abbott. C.S.L.C. has received grants from the Food and Health Bureau of the Hong Kong Government, Hong Kong Research Grant Council, Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Commission, Pfizer, IQVIA, MSD, and Amgen; and personal fees from PrimeVigilance and MSD; outside the submitted work. R.L. has received grants from Hong Kong Research Grant Council, Hong Kong Innovation and Technology Commission; and research donations from Oxford Nanopore Technologies, outside the submitted work. K.C.B.T. received consulting or speaker fees from Amgen, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Daiichi Sankyo, Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk and Sanofi. All other authors declare no competing interests.

: Ethical approval for this study was granted by the Institutional Review Board of The University of Hong Kong/HA Hong Kong West Cluster (UW20-073). Informed consent is waived by IRB in view of the retrospective nature of this study.