US calls for patents on anti-covid vaccines

In this way The Biden government has taken a 180-degree turn in its position and has supported patent exemption for coronavirus vaccines, a demand that until now the world’s major powers and inoculant makers have been rejecting the World Trade Organization (WTO).

“This is a global health crisis and the extraordinary circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic call for extraordinary measures. The government strongly believes in intellectual property protections, but, in the interest of ending this pandemic, it supports exemption from such protections for covid-19 vaccines, ”Tai said in a statement.

“We are in favor of the exemption at the WTO, we are in favor of what the promoters of the exemption are trying to achieve, namely better access, greater production capacity and more doses administered ”, he also explained in an interview, published by the news site Bloomberg.

The United States has changed its stance on one of the most sensitive issues in the current pandemic when a few countries – usually producers – concentrate the vast majority of global doses and others suffer from significant delays in production and logistical problems in obtaining enough vaccines to meet their immunization targets.

Even today, the ambassadors of WTO countries have resumed discussions on intellectual property of coronavirus vaccines, an initiative launched by India and South Africa, two regional powers hit hard by the pandemic, joined by most governments of low- and middle-income countries, including Argentina.

“Members must share their vaccines, those who have requested more than they really need must share with others, either through the Covax facility or other mechanisms. Those who have raw materials must allow them to flow through supply chains so that anyone who can manufacture can benefit.s “, asked the Director of the WTO again today, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala.