Vaccine tracking and distribution

The Secretary, together with relevant manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors as may agree to cooperate, may track the initial distribution of federally purchased influenza vaccine in an influenza pandemic, or other federally purchased vaccine to address another pandemic. Such tracking information shall be used to inform Federal, State, local, and tribal decision makers during an influenza pandemic or other pandemic. The Secretary shall promote communication between State, local, and tribal public health officials and such manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors as agree to participate, regarding the effective distribution of seasonal influenza vaccine. Such communication shall include estimates of high priority populations, as determined by the Secretary, in State, local, and tribal jurisdictions in order to inform Federal, State, local, and tribal decision makers during vaccine shortages and supply disruptions. The information submitted to the Secretary or its contractors, if any, under this section or under any other section of this chapter related to vaccine distribution information shall remain confidential in accordance with the exception from the public disclosure of trade secrets, commercial or financial information, and information obtained from an individual that is privileged and confidential, as provided for in section 552(b)(4) of title 5, and subject to the penalties and exceptions under sections 1832 and 1833 of title 18 relating to the protection and theft of trade secrets, and subject to privacy protections that are consistent with the regulations promulgated under section 264(c) of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. None of such information provided by a manufacturer, wholesaler, or distributor shall be disclosed without its consent to another manufacturer, wholesaler, or distributor, or shall be used in any manner to give a manufacturer, wholesaler, or distributor a proprietary advantage. The Secretary, in order to maintain the confidentiality of relevant information and ensure that none of the information contained in the systems involved may be used to provide proprietary advantage within the vaccine market, while allowing State, local, and tribal health officials access to such information to maximize the delivery and availability of vaccines to high priority populations, during times of influenza pandemics or other pandemics, vaccine shortages, and supply disruptions, in consultation with manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers and State, local, and tribal health departments, shall develop guidelines for subsections (a) and (b). There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section, $30,800,000 for each of fiscal years 2019 through 2023. As part of the National Health Security Strategy described in section 300hh–1 of this title, the Secretary shall provide an update on the implementation of subsections (a) through (d).