Drug Lobby Asks Biden to Punish Countries Pushing for Low-Cost Vaccines

KUALA LUMPUR, MALAYSIA - 2021/03/03: A healthcare worker holds a vial of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine during the first phase of the country nationwide vaccination drive at the Hospital UiTM in Sungai Buloh, outskirts of Kuala Lumpur. (Photo by Wong Fok Loy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

administration is being asked to punish Hungary, Colombia, Chile, and other countries for seeking to ramp up the production of Covid-19 vaccines and therapeutics without express permission from pharmaceutical companies. The sanctions are being urged by the drug industry, which has filed hundreds of pages of documents to the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative outlining the alleged threat posed by any effort to challenge “basic intellectual property protections” in the response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Drug Lobby Asks Biden to Punish Countries Pushing for Low-Cost Vaccines