Is A Covid-19 Patent Waiver The Right Solution?

With the "Indian" variant now raising its ugly head in other parts of the world, the idea that nobody is safe until everybody is safe feels more relevant than ever. Nevertheless, President Biden's support for an intellectual property waiver to allow low and middle income countries to make the vaccines themselves came as a surprise. Normally, the US takes a strong stance on intellectual property (IP) protection, but its trade representative, Katherine Tai, made it clear that these were extraordinary measures in extraordinary times. It was left to the CEO of Abbvie to put the classic intellectual property argument - who will make the vaccine next time if the incentives provided by the patent system are threatened in this way?