RIYADH: Crown Prince Naif, deputy premier and minister of interior, congratulated the Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) on Saturday upon the election of its vice chairman as president of the Asian Harmonization Working Party (AHWP).
Dr. Saleh Al-Tayyar, vice president for medical devices affairs, was unanimously elected AHWP President at the recent 16th AHWP meeting held in Denpasar, Indonesia.
Elected for a three-year tenure, Al-Tayyar succeeded the Chinese State Food and Drug Administration's Wang Baoting, who has held the post since 2009.
Congratulating Al-Tayyar, the crown prince said such an achievement brings credit to the Kingdom and hoped that his ventures would be successful during his tenure.
Representatives who attended the meeting highly commended China's work and achievements for AHWP in the past three years.
Directors and relevant officials of the Department of Medical Device Supervision and Department of International Cooperation of the State Food and Drug Administration of China, representatives from medical device regulatory bodies and enterprises of more than 20 member economies, and experts and scholars from the USA, EU, Japan, Australia and the World Health Organization (WHO) attended the meeting.
AHWP outgoing chairman Wang Baoting presided over the meeting and presented a report on work carried out for the past three years. AHWP's technical committee reported the research progress of each working group and proposed four documents to the member economies. Representatives from relevant member economies presented their own experiences and practices. Training programs on relevant laws and regulations were provided.
Asian Harmonization Working Party (AHWP) was established as a non-profit organization in 1996. Its goals are to study and recommend ways to harmonize medical device regulations in the Asian and other regions and to work in coordination with the Global Harmonization Task Force, APEC and other related international organizations aiming at establishing harmonized requirements, procedures and standards.
The working party is a group of experts from the medical device regulatory authorities and the medical device industry. Membership is open to those representatives from Asia and other regions that support these stated goals.
© Arab News 2011
