(MENAFN) On Wednesday, May. 5 the US expressed backing for waiving patent defenses for COVID-19 vaccines, noting that doing this would boost the worldwide response to the pandemic.
While the Biden government is powerfully supportive of intellectual property protections, it backs their lifting for COVID-19 vaccines "in service of ending this pandemic," noted US Trade Representative Katherine Tai.
She noted in a report: "we will actively participate in text-based negotiations at the World Trade Organization (WTO) needed to make that happen," adding: "those negotiations will take time given the consensus-based nature of the institution and the complexity of the issues involved."
Shares of the four firms making US-accepted vaccines -- Moderna, Pfizer, BioNTech and Johnson and Johnson -- fell sharply following news of the then-alarming announcement emerged.
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