His Excellency d. Mohammed bin Ahmed Alkanhal, the acting executive president of the SFDA declared that the Authority, represented by its medical devices and products sector and cooperating with international specialists of monitoring medical devices and products, has set a draft regarding the fundamental elements of the medical devices and products monitoring system since monitoring medical devices and products like: reagents, glasses, contact lenses and their solutions and radiant sources electronic devices is one of the SFDA responsibilities and in conformity with its system which has been issued according to a decree of the Ministers Council no. 31 on 24-1-1428H; and in accordance with the directions of His Royal Highness, Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz, the Chairman of the SFDA Board of Directors, that reflect the concern of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques about taking care of safety of all citizens and according to the importance of diagnostic and therapeutic medical devices and the fact of not having a clear regulation respecting them.
The SFDA tends to adopt transparency in its work and concerns about interested people and specialists of medical devices and products in governmental and private sectors and their visions, therefore it will organize a workshop to discuss the draft of the fundamental elements of medical devices and products monitoring system on Saturday, the 8th of Jumada AlAkher, 1428H, corresponding to 23-5-2007AD, in the headquarter of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Riyadh, cooperating with the group who set the draft with the International Bank.
D. Alkanhal added that the draft of system elements has been set according to international tendencies in this field including the tendencies of the Global Harmonization Task Force (GHTF) which aims to reach harmonization in systems of monitoring medical devices among the countries which established the force and they are (the United States of America, Canada, the European Union, Japan and Australia).
From his part, d. Saleh bin Sulaiman Attayar, the general director of medical devices and products sector, confirmed that the SFDA is interested in considering the visions and viewpoints of concerning people and specialists from the governmental and private sector about the draft of system elements to make use of them in setting the final draft of medical devices and products system and approve it by the SFDA Board of Directors in preparation of submitting it to the respected Ministers Council to adopt it.
It worth mentioning that there is not a unified system to monitor medical devices and products in the Kingdom and this step is the first of its kind.
At the end of his speech, d. Attayar assured that the SFDA will organize two other workshops in the Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Jeddah and Dammam, on Monday and Wednesday, the tenth and twelfth of Jumada Alakher, 1428H to discuss the issue.