Biden Ramps Up Pressure on Drugmakers With Vaccine-Patent Gambit
- Pharma industry giants, Germany’s Merkel balk at waiver talk
- Progressive Democrats cheer, but compromise seems more likely
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President Joe Biden stunned European allies and the pharmaceutical industry when his administration announced support Wednesday for international talks on waiving patent protections for Covid-19 vaccines, but there are signs he’s interested in a more modest compromise.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai’s announcement that the administration would support a waiver was a reversal of longstanding U.S. policy that its companies’ intellectual property is sacrosanct. But in her statement, Tai said the administration would back a World Trade Organization “process” to try to reach a deal to waive vaccine patents, rather than a specific proposal from South Africa and India.