The United States supports waiving intellectual property protections for Covid-19 vaccines in order to increase global access and quickly end the pandemic.
On May 5, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced that the United States would support the waiver of intellectual property protections on Covid-19 vaccines under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) of the World Trade Organization (WTO), which aims to allow manufacturers around the world to produce vaccines.
“This is a global health crisis, and the extraordinary circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic require extraordinary measures,” said Katherine. The Biden-Harris administration strongly believes in intellectual property rights, she added, but supports a waiver in favor of ending the Covid-19 pandemic.
“The goal of the government is to get as many safe and effective vaccines to as many people as quickly as possible,” Katherine said.
The United States will work with WTO member countries to develop a temporary exemption, although this will take time due to the consensus nature of the WTO and the complexity of the issues involved.
Meanwhile, the U.S. government is also working with international partners and the private sector to increase the availability of raw materials needed for vaccines and expand vaccine manufacturing and distribution worldwide.
The United States has contributed $2 billion to the Covid-19 Global Vaccine Access Instrument (Covax Facility) and pledged an additional $2 billion by 2022. Covax, an international partnership dedicated to equitable global access to vaccines, aims to distribute two billion doses of the Covid-19 vaccine by the
end of 2021.
As part of the Quad Security Dialogue partnership, the United States – along with Australia, India, and Japan – is planning to finance, manufacture, and distribute at least one billion vaccine doses to the Indo-Pacific region by the end of 2022. The United States is also expediting the provision of emergency assistance to support India’s battle against Covid-19, including oxygen equipment, therapeutic methods, personal protective equipment, and ventilators.
The United States is also providing India with raw materials for vaccine production.
John N. Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, praised the U.S. government’s plan to participate in negotiations to waive protections for Covid-19 vaccines under the WTO’s TRIPS Agreement.
“This is leadership in action!” he said. “History will remember this decision as a great act of humanity!”
Source: https://share.america.gov/