Washington: The Biden administration supports waiving intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines due to the global emergency triggered by the pandemic, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said Wednesday.
“This is a global health crisis, and the extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic call for extraordinary measures. The Administration believes strongly in intellectual property protections, but in service of ending this pandemic, supports the waiver of those protections for COVID-19 vaccines,” Tai said in a statement.
She added that the United States would actively participate in text-based negotiations at the World Trade Organization to make the waiver happen. “Those negotiations will take time given the consensus-based nature of the institution and the complexity of the issues involved.”
