Regarding the SFDA vision that adopts the responsibility of being a regional pioneer monitoring authority in field of food, drug and medical devices as well as offering professional services that enhance health safety in the Kingdom; the SFDA made a national achievement by joining the technical work group in the Global Harmonization Task Force (GHTF) for monitoring medical devices and products; which includes the USA, Canada, European Union countries, Australia and Japan.
The KSA is the only country that has been accepted with a full membership within this group and does not belong to the group of industrial countries that established the (GHTF).
The SFDA participated in the last meeting of work group three, which deals with quality regulations of medical devices and products, that was held from 14 to 17-10- 1429H, equals 14 to 17-10-2008 in Canada. The SFDA was represented by engineer Ali Al Dalaan, the Director of Technical Support and Information Department in the medical devices sector.
During the meetings, the issue of setting monitoring regulations of medical devices and products quality among the participated countries of (GHTF) had been discussed. In addition, several common meetings of different technical work groups had been held to negotiate mechanisms of registering companies and establishments work in field of medical devices and products and review quality regulations that relate to monitoring medical devices and products.
It worth mentioning that the medical devices sector is a member of the Asian Harmonization Work Party (AWHP), that includes more than 16 country from South Asia containing the KSA; as the medical devices sector representatives head several technical groups.