Sponsors (2)
Introduced June 26, 2025 by Doris Matsui · Last progress June 26, 2025
The bill strengthens resilience against dangerous drug shortages and gives hospitals and agencies clearer data and authorities to act, but it creates administrative costs, potential market and security risks from centralized data, and trade‑off tensions between protecting proprietary information and ensuring public transparency.
Patients with chronic conditions (and Medicare/Medicaid beneficiaries) would face fewer harmful treatment interruptions because an essential‑medicines list, vulnerability assessments, and mitigation planning target APIs/drugs that cause the worst shortages.
Hospitals and health systems would get clearer, actionable information (which APIs/drugs to stock, domestic capacity, alternative suppliers) to improve procurement, surge planning, and early warning of shortages.
Federal authorities and emergency responders would be better able to prepare for and respond to public‑health, CBRN, and other crises because the bill identifies critical medicines, enables interagency info‑sharing, and authorizes use of authorities (e.g., DPA) to speed production when needed.
Centralizing detailed supply‑chain and production data creates a high-value target: if improperly accessed or disclosed, it could create national security risks and disrupt medicine supplies.
Preparing, maintaining, and updating lists, assessments, reports, and data systems will impose administrative and coordination burdens on HHS and partner agencies, diverting staff/time and imposing compliance costs.
Actions to mitigate shortages (subsidies, domestic production expansion, or compliance costs) could raise costs for taxpayers, consumers, and possibly patients if manufacturers pass on expenses.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Requires HHS to maintain an Essential Medicines List, assess and map supply chains for those drugs, report risks and mitigation plans to Congress, and enable interagency data sharing and analytics.
Requires the Department of Health and Human Services to create and keep an updated Essential Medicines List that covers drugs and active pharmaceutical ingredients critical for emergency response, high-priority care, and chronic-condition patients. It orders HHS to assess and map supply chains for those medicines, identify risks (like heavy foreign reliance or single suppliers), report findings to Congress, and use data analytics and interagency information sharing to spot and mitigate shortages or security threats. Sets firm deadlines for initial work (first list update and risk report within 180 days, an initial supply-chain mapping report within 18 months) and requires annual follow-ups, preserves trade-secret protections, and mandates cybersecurity safeguards for exchanged data. The bill authorizes HHS activities but does not appropriate funding.