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By Steve Holland and Andrea Shalal
WASHINGTON, April 27 (Reuters) - The White House is
considering options for maximizing global production and supply
of COVID-19 vaccines at the lowest cost, including backing a
proposed waiver of intellectual property rights, but no decision
has been made, press secretary Jen Psaki said on Tuesday.
"There are a lot of different ways to do that. Right now,
that's one of the ways, but we have to assess what makes the
most sense," Psaki said, adding that U.S. officials were
studying whether it would be more effective to boost existing
manufacturing of the vaccines in the United States.
U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai had not made a
recommendation on the issue, and President Joe Biden had not
made a decision, she said.
U.S. lawmakers and nonprofit groups are heaping pressure on
the Biden administration to back the temporary patent waiver to
help poor countries contain the pandemic as India and other
countries battle a massive surge in cases.
The United States and several other countries have thus far
blocked negotiations at the World Trade Organization (WTO) 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.
Proponents are pushing Washington to change course ahead of
another WTO meeting on the issue on April 30.
Critics say waiving the WTO's agreement on Trade-Related
Aspects of Intellectual Property could reduce the safety of
vaccines, and that setting up production in new places would sap
resources needed to boost production in existing locations.
Tai discussed the issue on Monday with drugmakers Pfizer
and AstraZeneca PLC, noting her interest in a
solution that gave developing countries a role in addressing
critical gaps in vaccine production and distribution.
U.S. industry executives believe Tai may be leaning toward
backing the waiver after she called the gaping divide between
developed and developing countries' access to medicines
"completely unacceptable" and said industry needed to make
sacrifices in times of crisis.
(Reporting by Steve Holland and Andrea Shalal; Editing by
Leslie Adler and David Gregorio)
