The US and EU plan to donate enough vaccines to inoculate two-thirds of the world by late 2022, draft summit text says

• US and EU delegates are set to meet next week.
• They are expected to agree on a deal to boost vaccine production, and donate millions of doses.
• Biden has been under pressure to share vaccine doses with countries that need it more.

The US and European Union are planning to donate enough vaccine doses to inoculate two-thirds of the world population by the end of 2022, Reuters reported Wednesday, citing a draft document.

Diplomats from the two powers are meeting in Brussels on June 15, where they are expected to finalize the text and set up a joint task force to boost the global production of vaccines, Reuters reported.

The task force would boost production capacity by "encouraging voluntary sharing of knowhow and technology on mutually-determined terms," Reuters reported.

The news agency noted that this was not the same as making pharmaceutical companies lift their vaccine patents, a move that President Joe Biden supports but various EU countries, including Germany, oppose.

The draft text also said that the US and EU would "encourage more donors to make 2 billion vaccine doses available worldwide by late 2021," per Reuters.

Biden has been under pressure to share vaccine doses with countries that need them more. Many poorer nations are still struggling with coronavirus cases, and the World Health Organization warned last week of a continent-wide surge.

So far the US has promised to share at least 80 million vaccine doses, while the EU has promised 100 million. Both figures are relatively small in comparison to the world's unvaccinated populations.

Both the US and EU are already part of COVAX, the WHO scheme to help poorer nations get vaccines, but experts have warned that it too is no where near well-equipped enough to meaningfully confront the pandemic.