Hong Kong fertility clinic allowed to fully resume services after investigation into embryo sample mix-up

A fertility clinic has been allowed to fully resume its services following an embryo sample mix-up incident earlier this year, Hong Kong authorities have announced. Ex-financial secretary Antony Leung (third from left), one of the founders of Heal Fertility, attends an opening ceremony for the centre in 2023. Photo: Heal Medical Group. The Department of Health said in a statement on Monday that the department will lift a service ban on Heal Fertility. The clinic was allowed to resume taking on new patients for assisted reproductive treatments starting from Tuesday. The decision was made after the Council on Human Reproductive Technology confirmed that the clinic had “properly implemented all remedial and improvement measures” following a sample mix-up incident. The council hosted a meeting on Monday to review Heal Fertility’s licence. It then granted approval to the clinic to fully resume the 17 treatment services covered by the licence. In a statement released on Monday, the council said it launched an unannounced inspection on September 22. During the inspection, it was “satisfied and convinced” that Heal Fertility had refined its internal sample‑handling procedures, strengthened staff training, and upgraded laboratory management and security systems. Authorities revealed in July that Heal Fertility sent the wrong embryo specimens while handling two couples’ cases for DNA testing to a genetic diagnosis centre at the Chinese University of Hong Kong in May. The Assisted Reproductive Technology Unit at Prince of Wales Hospital. Photo: Kyle Lam/HKFP. In one case, six out of the seven embryo specimens sent for testing did not belong to the purported parents. In the other case, neither of the two embryo specimens belonged to the purported parents. The clinic was also found to have violated a practice guideline by not reporting the incident to health authorities within 24 hours of identification. Heal Fertility was launched in 2023 under Heal Medical Group, a subsidiary of the New Frontier Group. A health and life science company, New Frontier Group was co-founded by Antony Leung, a former Hong Kong financial secretary, as well as a former executive at Blackstone. ‘Intentional conduct by an individual’ After the incident came to light, a police investigation found that a Malaysian employee at the clinic was suspected of deliberately mixing up the specimens of embryos. The employee quit the job a day after being interviewed by police and subsequently left Hong Kong. Heal Fertility Centre in Central. Photo: Heal Fertility Centre. Police have been searching for the suspect. The Council on Human Reproductive Technology announced in early September that the council had completed its investigation into the incident, and requested Heal Fertility to refine its procedures for handling embryo samples. The council said it had accepted the investigation’s findings that the “main cause of the incident may involve intentional unlawful conduct by an individual,” and that it would continue to support the police. Safeguard press freedom; keep HKFP free for all readers by supporting our team Support HKFP | Policies & Ethics | Error/typo? | Contact | Newsletter | Transparency & Annual Report | Apps Make a one-off donation. Irene Chan is a reporter at Hong Kong Free Press and has an interest in covering political and social change. She previously worked at Initium Media as chief editor for Hong Kong news and was a community organiser at the Society for Community Organisation serving the underprivileged. She has a bachelor’s degree in Journalism from Fudan University and a master’s degree in social work from the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Irene is the recipient of two Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) awards and three honourable mentions for her investigative, feature and video reporting. She also received a Human Rights Press Award for multimedia reporting and an honourable mention for feature writing. More by Irene Chan