The United States supports waiving intellectual property protections for Covid-19 vaccines

Joe Biden's administration announced on Wednesday that the United States supports waiving intellectual property protections for Covid-19 vaccines. 

«This is a global health crisis, and the extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic call for extraordinary measures. 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», United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai wrote in a statement.

«As our vaccine supply for the American people is secured, the Administration will continue to ramp up its efforts — working with the private sector and all possible partners — to expand vaccine manufacturing and distribution. It will also work to increase the raw materials needed to produce those vaccines», he added.

The Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus hailed Washington's decision, congratulating the United States on this «monumental moment in the fight against Covid-19» and the «moral leadership of the White House in the fight to end the pandemic».

Waiving intellectual property protections for Covid-19 vaccines is demanded by India and South Africa to be able to speed up production, but certain countries, including France, and laboratories are opposed to it.