The United States has declared its support for World Trade Organization proposals to temporarily lift intellectual property protections for Covid-19 vaccines. In a written statement, U.S. trade representative Katherine Tai said that “this is a global health crisis” and that “the extraordinary circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic call for extraordinary measures”. The U.S. stance has not been welcomed by pharmaceutical companies who claim it will not ease supply bottlenecks and only serve to stifle innovation.
