Italy's foreign minister Luigi Di Maio on Thursday praised US president Joe Biden's "very important" support for a waiver on intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines, urging other European countries to back the move.
"The announcement that the Biden administration supports suspending patents is a very important sign," Di Maio wrote on Facebook after Biden's remarks on Wednesday.
"Italy is on side and Europe should not lose this chance to show itself to be united and courageous," Di Maio went on.
Di Maio called for free access to anti-COVID-19 patents as lower income countries face acute vaccine shortages amid the pandemic.
India, which was shipping vaccines to other countries, has now had to cancel exports as it grapples with surging coronavirus cases and falls behind on its vaccination targets amid its escalating emergency.
"It's a race against time and everybody needs to cooperate if we are not to be overwhelmed by variants of the virus," Di Maio stated.
"Every state must have the same opportunities and it is crucial to liberalize production in the face of this emergency."
Biden voiced support for a waiver - a sharp reversal of previous US policy - following mounting pressure from Democratic lawmakers and from more than 100 other countries.
Pharmaceutical companies, the UK and the European Union oppose a vaccines waiver
Biden's announcement was followed by a statement on Wednesday from his top trade negotiator, Katherine Tai, who backed negotiations at the World Trade Organization.
WTO decisions require consent by all 164 members and any agreement on a waiver plan could take months of negotiations.
