Intellectual property (IP) rights are at the heart of global supplies and access to Covid-19 vaccines. US President Joe Biden’s administration has expressed its support for a patent waiver to boost vaccine production in a climate of throttled supply and dominance of vaccine manufacturing by a few Western companies.
America’s support could be a significant boost in the fight to increase global supplies of vaccines and loosen the grip of Western pharmaceutical companies that have used the pandemic, perversely, to bulk up profits while throttling governments of poor nations that are going through fiscal strain. However, there is still a long struggle ahead to get the patent waiver through the World Trade Organization (WTO)...
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