Globally there has been a lot of pressure for wealthy nations to share vaccines with developing countries and one of the big hurdles for the United States has been patent protection for vaccines.
The Biden administration overnight chose to waive a few of the patents protecting the vaccines in an “extremely significant move” which angered the pharmaceutical industry, according to Perth USAsia Centre CEO Gordon Flake. “The announcement … makes it clear that the US fully understands this is an area where the US is normally one of the fiercest advocates,” he told Sky News.
Mr Flake said even in free trade agreements between the US and Australia intellectual property rights are held as a “sacred writ” by corporate America but dealing with the pandemic will require “unprecedented steps” to help control.
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