Kennedy Jr. would retain legal fees earned from litigation against drugmaker Merck if he is confirmed as President Donald Trump's secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, according to a federal ethics disclosure made public on Wednesday.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President Trump’s nominee to be health secretary, would have oversight power over the vaccine’s maker, Merck, if confirmed.

Kennedy, a vaccine sceptic who Trump picked to be health secretary in November, said he was entitled to keep interests in cases that did not involve the US or in which the state did not have a “direct and substantial interest”.