Biden backs TRIPS waiver for COVID-19 vaccines

President Joe Biden has backed the waiving of IP rights for COVID-19 vaccines following mounting pressure from countries, charities and industry bodies.

The waiver, first posed by India and South Africa to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in October 2020, seeks to temporarily waive certain provisions of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS Agreement) to help bring an end to the global pandemic.

The waiver claims that IP rights are “hindering or potentially hindering” the supply of affordable treatments, with countries with “insufficient or not manufacturing capacity” being most affected.

US trade representative Katherine Tai released a statement announcing the administration's support on Wednesday, April 5.

“This is a global health crisis, and the extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic calls for extraordinary measures,” the statement said. “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.”