Biden administration backs waiving of vaccine intellectual property protections

Ms Tai’s announcement comes hours after WTO director-general Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala spoke to a closed-door meeting of ambassadors from developing and developed countries that have been wrangling over the issue, but agree on the need for wider access to Covid-19 treatments, WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell said.

A Syrian nurse receives AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine in Idlib, Syria (Ghaith Alsayed/AP)

President Joe Biden’s administration is throwing its support behind efforts to waive intellectual property protections for Covid-19 vaccines in an effort to speed the end of the pandemic.

United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced the US government’s position in a Wednesday statement, amid World Trade Organisation talks over easing global trade rules to enable more countries to produce more of the life-saving vaccines.