Biden ad­min­is­tra­tion backs a po­lar­iz­ing pro­pos­al to waive IP for all Covid-19 vac­cines

In a sur­prise U-turn, the Biden ad­min­is­tra­tion said Wednes­day that it will sup­port a pro­pos­al at the World Trade Or­ga­ni­za­tion to tem­porar­i­ly waive in­tel­lec­tu­al prop­er­ty pro­tec­tions on Covid-19 vac­cines.

The pro­pos­al, backed by South Africa and In­dia at the WTO, seeks to help de­vel­op­ing coun­tries with lim­it­ed vac­cine sup­plies. The US and Eu­rope his­tor­i­cal­ly op­posed the pro­pos­al, say­ing IP should be pro­tect­ed be­cause it in­cen­tivizes new drug and vac­cine de­vel­op­ment.

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