WASHINGTON—A group of progressive lawmakers are urging President Joe Biden to temporarily waive intellectual property and patent rights on COVID-19 vaccines to provide “equitable access” to vaccination around the world. Opponents, however, call such proposals “unnecessary” and “misguided.”
Several U.S. Senate and House members led by Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), together with more than a dozen health and labor organizations, are expected to deliver 2 million petitions to Biden on April 23 in the latest effort to pressure the White House to lift patent barriers so that vaccines can be manufactured across different countries.
