President Biden threw his support behind a World Trade Organization proposal on Wednesday to waive intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines, clearing a hurdle for vaccine-strapped countries to manufacture their own vaccines even though the patents are privately held.
The European Union is pivoting to the Pfizer/BioNTech coronavirus shot with a record agreement to buy up to 1.8 billion doses, as court proceedings in its lawsuit against another major vaccine maker, AstraZeneca, began in Brussels on Wednesday.