US President Joe Biden's administration has announced its support for a global waiver on patent protections for Covid-19 vaccines, and will negotiate the terms at the World Trade Organization.
While intellectual property rights for businesses are important, the United States "supports the waiver of those protections for Covid-19 vaccines," US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said in a statement. "This is a global health crisis, and the extraordinary circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic call for extraordinary measures," she added.
Negotiations at the WTO to waive the protections will take time given the consensus-based nature of the institution and the complexity of the issue, a Biden administration official added.