Amid a furious debate over boosting global distribution of Covid-19 vaccines, more than a dozen Republican senators are urging the Biden administration to rescind its “disastrous decision” to support a controversial proposal to temporarily waive intellectual property rights.
In a harshly worded letter, the lawmakers argued the proposal before the World Trade Organization could hurt the U.S economy and make it easier for other countries to steal intellectual property and medical technology. They also maintained that a waiver would foster vaccine nationalism and allow China to undercut American leadership in vaccine distribution in the developing world.
The proposal “would undermine the extraordinary global response that has achieved historically remarkable results in record time and our nation’s global leadership in the technologies, medicines, and treatments of the future,” the Republican senators wrote to Gina Raimondo, the Department of Commerce Secretary, and Katherine Tai, the U.S. Trade Representative.
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