WASHINGTON (Reuters) -President Joe Biden said on Wednesday he plans to back a World Trade Organization waiver for vaccine intellectual property and would talk about it later in the day.
“Yes, I’m going to talk about that later today, yes,” Biden told reporters in reply to a question about whether he intended to back the waiver after he gave a speech regarding his proposed “American Rescue Plan.”
The United States and several other countries have thus far blocked negotiations at the World Trade Organization about a proposal led by India and South Africa that would waive the IP rights of pharmaceutical companies to allow developing countries to produce COVID-19 vaccines.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal and Steve Holland; Editing by Peter Cooney)
