Sarah Tew/CNET
The US Trade Representative supports waiving intellectual property protections on COVID-19 vaccines, it announced Wednesday. Making the vaccine recipes available could help speed up the production of shots and could end the coronavirus pandemic sooner.
During talks with the World Trade Organization about global trade, US Trade Representative Katherine Tai said the administration of President Joe Biden “believes strongly in intellectual property protections, but in service of ending this pandemic, supports the waiver of those protections for COVID-19 vaccines.”
Read more: Biden wants 70% of American adults vaccinated by July Fourth
“We will actively participate in text-based negotiations at the World Trade Organization needed to make that happen,” Tai said, adding that it’ll take some time for the WTO nations to reach consensus. “The administration’s aim is to get as many safe and effective vaccines to as many people as fast as possible.”
The Biden administration will also “work to increase the raw materials needed to produce” the vaccines, Tai said.
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