Australia has backed a global push to fast-track generic COVID-19 jabs

The government has joined an international push to fast-track the vaccines, backing a waiver of intellectual property rights.

The federal government has joined an international push to fast-track the production of generic Covid jabs.

The Morrison government has joined an international push to fast-track the production of generic COVID-19 jabs, backing a waiver of intellectual property rights for the drug companies behind the vaccines.

The move came as the United States announced its support for the proposed IP waiver, aimed at making it easier for developing countries to manufacture their own COVID-19 vaccines.

Trade Minister Dan Tehan, who recently discussed the proposal with World Trade Organisation head Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, said Australia supported the plan championed by India and South Africa, which is now backed by more than 115 countries.

“We welcome this positive development and look forward to working with the US and others to find solutions that boost the global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines,” Mr Tehan told The Australian.

“The WTO Director General has been working on an outcome for some weeks and I was pleased to discuss a way forward with her, including the proposal put forward by the International Chamber of Commerce, when we met in Geneva recently.

“Close collaboration between governments and vaccine manufacturers will remain vital.”

United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai announced the Biden administration would throw its support behind the intellectual property waiver in a statement on Wednesday, amid WTO talks on easing global trade rules to allow more countries to produce the lifesaving jabs.

“The Administration believes strongly in intellectual property protections, but in service of ending this pandemic, supports the waiver of those protections for COVID-19 vaccines,” she said.

But she warned it would take time to reach the required global “consensus” to waive the protections under WTO rules, the move would not have an immediate effect on the global supply of COVID-19 shots.

“This is a global health crisis, and the extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic call for extraordinary measures,” Ms Tai said.

“The Administration’s aim is to get as many safe and effective vaccines to as many people as fast as possible.”

The WTO has for months faced calls to temporarily remove the intellectual property protections on COVID-19 vaccines, known as a TRIPS waiver in reference to the agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property.

WTO chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala on Wednesday described the proposal as the “moral and economic issue of our time.”

But the move has been fiercely opposed by pharmaceutical giants and their host countries, which insist the patents are not the main roadblocks to scaling up production, and warned the move could hamper innovation.

“A waiver is the simple but the wrong answer to what is a complex problem,” the Geneva-based International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations lobby group said, describing the US move as “disappointing.”

Tai in recent weeks has met with executives from all the major US vaccine producers — Pfizer, Moderna and

-WITH AFP