On Wednesday the US government announced its support for a waiver of provisions of the World Trade Organisation’s Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property (commonly known as TRIPS) regarding intellectual property on Covid-19 vaccines. “This is a global health crisis and the extraordinary circumstances of the global Covid-19 pandemic call for extraordinary measures. The Administration believes strongly in intellectual property protections, but in the service of ending this pandemic, supports the waiver of those protections for Covid-19 vaccines.” This is in response to a request for a waiver tabled by South Africa and India more than nine months ago, which has won the support of 100 mostly developed countries but faced the resistance of the UK, US and EU. As well as — predictably — the big pharmaceutical companies.