The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, represented by the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA), will host, virtually, tomorrow, Tuesday, March 8, 2022, the meeting of the General Secretariat of the Global Harmonization Working Party (GHWP) and leaders of scientific and technical work groups.

The meeting will be chaired by the GHWP chairman /Executive Vice President of the Medical Devices Sector at SFDA, Eng. Ali Al-Dalaan, and with the participation of more than 32 representatives of the organization's member states.

The United States of America, represented by the Food and Drug Administration (USFDA), will participate for the first time as a full member, in addition to the Inter-American Coalition for Regulatory Convergence for Medical Technology Sector (IACRC) which includes a number of countries such as Brazil, Canada, Argentina, Colombia, Venezuela and Chile. The Global Medical Technology Alliance (GMTA) will also participate in the meeting, which includes organizations from several European and North and South American countries. Both ICARC and GMTA will participate for the first time as association members with GHWP.

During this meeting, member states will follow up and review the work of the scientific and technical work teams and their achievements. They will also review the best ways to harmonize and converge the regulatory systems and legislations for medical devices among member states.

GHWP includes more than 32 regulatory bodies, and a number of consultants with regulatory expertise from the United States of America, Europe and Japan. GHWP is in continuous coordination with a number of strategic partners and other organizations such as (APEC, WHO, OECD) and the International Medical Devices Regulators Forum, with the aim of creating an environment of homogeneity and legislative convergence, and developing regulatory systems and legislation for medical devices and products in accordance with International best practices, and providing assistance to emerging countries in building their control systems and benefiting from the various experiences of the members of the organization.

The Kingdom participates in all nine scientific and technical work groups with specialized and experienced members, in addition to chairing the two work groups for pre-marketing requirements - medical software, and the quality management system for medical devices, auditing and evaluation.