§247d–7f Collaboration and Coordination

Summary

The Secretary of Health may hold meetings with companies and others who are making or storing certain medical countermeasures or pandemic products. The Secretary must work with the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security and may include the Federal Trade Commission Chair. Meetings can be started by those officials, by interested people, or by the Secretary. The Secretary must tell the Attorney General, the FTC Chair, and the Homeland Security Secretary ahead of time what will be talked about. The Secretary leads the meetings, decides who can join, keeps a full word-for-word transcript, and must protect national security and private business secrets. No one can be forced to give up confidential commercial information. Parts of the transcript may be kept secret and exempt from public disclosure if release would threaten national security. Participating in these meetings is not automatically illegal under antitrust laws. If the meeting produces a written agreement about developing, making, distributing, buying, or storing a countermeasure or product, the Secretary must send that agreement plus an explanation and details to the Attorney General and the FTC Chair. The Attorney General, with the FTC Chair, must approve, deny, partially approve, or suggest changes to a request for an antitrust exemption within 15 business days, and may extend that by up to 10 business days. If approved, the exemption starts right away and lasts up to 3 years unless not renewed. Exemptions only cover the activities needed to keep the countermeasure or product available and do not protect things like price-fixing, dividing markets, or sharing unrelated competitor cost or production secrets. Using any exempted information for other purposes is still subject to antitrust and other laws. The Attorney General’s review counts as an antitrust investigation under the Antitrust Civil Process Act. The Attorney General and FTC Chair must report to Congress starting one year after enactment and then biannually thereafter. This authority expires after December 31, 2026. Definitions (one line each): antitrust laws = federal and similar state competition laws; countermeasure or product = security countermeasure, qualified countermeasure, or qualified pandemic/epidemic product; covered activities = work on development, manufacture, distribution, purchase, or storage.