The Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed; Washington) and the Global Harmonization Task Force (GHTF; Silver Spring, Maryland) are in final preparations for their October conferences, which will run almost concurrently in Washington, DC.

AdvaMed bills its 2007 med-tech conference as “the premier medical technology conference and exhibition for business leaders, policymakers, patient groups, news media, financiers, and service providers from around the world.”

According to the association’s web site, more than 800 senior executives from more than 500 companies will flock to the U.S. capital and will have “the opportunity to directly access decision-makers and influence the business, political and financial climates so imperative to innovation.” The conference runs Oct. 1-3 at the Ronald Reagan Building & International Trade Center.

For its part, the GHTF has a more long-term agenda, namely the harmonization of regulations for medical devices. More formally, GHTF’s stated goals for the session include evolving “from a consensus development organization to an action-oriented organization dedicated to effecting significant change in medical device regulatory practices world-wide,” and reaching agreement on “a path forward for the GHTF and its future.”

One of the discussions that will take place at the GHTF sessions, which will also take place at the Reagan Building, is a session on dealing with quality systems audits for more than one regulatory body. Another session will cover nanotechnology and its impact on device regulation harmonization.

One of the more interesting sessions for those in the drug-eluting stent business is the session dealing with combination products that may overlap with the international regulatory standards for drug harmonization written by the International Conference on Harmonization (ICH; Geneva).

The GHTF sessions will run Oct. 3-4.

Registration information is available at the web sites for both AdvaMed and GHTF.