US Navy, Kyle Steckler / Flickr cc
Today the Biden administration said it supports an initiative to waive the intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines.
A statement from United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai said, 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.
The statement was made during talks at the World Trade Organization s (WTO s) general council meeting. The proposal was first floated last fall, but many wealthy countries opposed it. The WTO will require unanimous agreement on the temporary waiver of property rights, and is expected to formally vote on the issue in June. Proponents of the waiver say it will be in place for a handful of years, until the pandemic is under control.
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The United States, as well as other wealthy countries, have faced pressure to support a proposal under the World Trade Organisation (WTO) that would temporarily waive intellectual property protections for Covid-19 vaccines – at a time when cases are surging in parts of the world like India.
Under the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement, pharmaceutical companies are awarded monopoly control over vaccine production. This has sparked a backlash amid the pandemic, though, because it could impact poor countries from ramping up their own supplies.
Now the WTO has reportedly urged member nations to each temporarily ease the rules protecting intellectual property for vaccinations in an effort to make vaccines more accessible for struggling countries.
Press statement
Statement from the Executive Director of UNAIDS, Winnie Byanyima on the decision by the United States of America to support the TRIPS waiver for COVID-19 vaccines 06 May 202106 May 2021
I applaud the
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.
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In a statement issued earlier today, United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced the Biden-Harris Administration s support for waiving intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines.
As we reported earlier this year, India and South Africa proposed last fall that the Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) of the World Trade Organization (WTO) 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. The two countries also recommended that [t]he waiver should continue until widespread vaccination is in place globally.