The pharmaceutical companies hate it. The Biden administration is embracing it. Now, finding common ground for wider distribution of Covid-19 vaccines in poorer countries falls to the World Trade Organization -- a body known more for its inability to do international deals than to clinch them.
Drug companies have a powerful ally in Germany, along with other nations, opposing a waiver of rules protecting the intellectual property behind the vaccines. When the U.S. backed that waiver, it sent shares of American and European vaccine makers tumbling on Wednesday.
