US approves waiving intellectual property rules on vaccines

United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced the government's position in a Wednesday statement, amid World Trade Organisation talks over easing global trade rules to enable more countries to produce more of the life-saving vaccines. 

“The Administration believes strongly in intellectual property protections, but in service of ending this pandemic, supports the waiver of those protections for COVID-19 vaccines," Tai said in the statement. 

But she cautioned that it would take time to reach the required global “consensus” to waive the protections under WTO rules, and US officials said it would not have an immediate effect on the global supply of COVID-19 shots.