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Yesterday, United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced the Biden-Harris Administration s support for waiving intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines (see Biden Administration Supports Waiver of IP Protection for COVID-19 Vaccines ). The waiver was proposed last fall by India and South Africa, which asked the Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to recommend a waiver from the implementation, application and enforcement of Sections 1, 4, 5, and 7 of Part II of the TRIPS Agreement in relation to prevention, containment or treatment of COVID-19 to the General Council of the WTO. In March, the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), a group of fifteen industry and trade organizations (including BIO), and a group of intellectual property organizations (including the IPO), sent letters to the Biden Administratio
US to support India-South Africa WTO proposal to waive off patent protection rules on Covid-19 vaccines
On May 5, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said the Biden-Harris administration has decided to announce support. This is a global health crisis and the extraordinary circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic call for extraordinary measures, Tai stated
Joe C Mathew | May 6, 2021 | Updated 08:18 IST
After the US support, EU will be the only major trade bloc that continues to oppose the move at WTO
The United States has announced the support for waiving intellectual property (IP) protection for Covid-19 vaccines. The decision is a breakthrough in India and South Africa s attempts to get World Trade Organisation (WTO) member countries to agree to such a waiver to fight the pandemic equitably.
UNAIDS
I applaud the announcement from United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai supporting the waiving of intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines.
This is the kind of global leadership the world desperately needs as we witness horrific scenes in countries like India, where only nine in 100 people have been vaccinated. To date, more than 1.1 billion doses of vaccine have been administered globally, but more than 80% of those have been administered in high- and upper-middle income countries, while just 0.3% have been administered in low-income countries.
We are in a race to vaccinate the majority of the world’s population to curb death tolls and before more potent variants of COVID-19 emerge, rendering current vaccines ineffective. The faster we can scale up global vaccine supply, the faster we can contain the virus and the less chance we will face a day when variants prove resistant to existing vaccines. As the United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Gut
Statement from Ambassador Katherine Tai on the Vaccine Manufacturing US Trade Representative Katherine Tai (Image by ustr.gov)
United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai today released a statement announcing the Biden-Harris Administration’s support for waiving intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines.
“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. We will actively participate in text-based negotiations at the World Trade Organization (WTO) needed to make that happen. Those negotiations will take time given the consensus-based nature of the institution and the complexity of the issues involved.
US Noncommittal on Vaccine Patents Waiver
May 06, 2021
A health worker inoculates a man with the Covid-19 coronavirus vaccine on the outskirts of Kathmandu on March 7, 2021. (Photo by Prakash MATHEMA / AFP)
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Amid a surge of COVID-19 cases in India and other parts of the world, the United States remains noncommittal on an October 2020 proposal by India and South Africa to waive certain provisions of the World Trade Organization s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS).
The proposal would loosen patent restrictions so that countries can manufacture generic versions of the coronavirus vaccines. We are working with our global partners to explore pragmatic and effective steps to surge production and equitable distribution of vaccines, a United States Trade Representative (USTR) official told VOA.