Pelosi Statement on Biden Administration Support for Vaccine Patents Waiver at WTO

Statement

San Francisco -- Speaker Nancy Pelosi released this statement commending the Biden Administration's announcement that it will work to negotiate a carefully-crafted waiver of some Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) rules at the WTO to help increase global production of COVID vaccines:

"The Biden Administration's announcement that they will work to advance a carefully-crafted TRIPS waiver for vaccines at the WTO is a welcome and important step in the fight to crush the virus globally. The President is to be commended for the United States' plans to take a strong role in negotiations that are focused on how best to ensure that all countries have access to lifesaving treatments and vaccines during this extraordinary pandemic.

"We must also continue to provide the resources and assistance needed to turbocharge the production and deployment of vaccines, in order to vaccinate as many people as quickly as possible as the virus rages in many parts of the world. President Biden's American Rescue Plan significantly provides billions for vital global health initiatives, and thanks to the leadership of House Democrats, the December coronavirus relief package included $4 billion for GAVI, the global vaccine alliance.

"Accelerating the production and distribution of life-saving vaccines across the globe is both a moral imperative and an urgent necessity to crush the virus pandemic and prevent the spread of more virulent coronavirus variants. We cannot be fully safe from the virus anywhere until we defeat it everywhere."

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