WASHINGTON — The Biden administration came out on Wednesday in support of waiving intellectual property protections for coronavirus vaccines, siding with international efforts to bolster production amid concerns about vaccine access in developing nations.

The United States had been a major holdout at the World Trade Organization over a proposal to suspend some of the world economic body’s intellectual property protections, which could allow drugmakers across the globe access to the closely guarded trade secrets of how the viable vaccines have been made. But President Biden had come under increasing pressure to throw his support behind the proposal, drafted by India and South Africa and backed by many congressional Democrats.

Katherine Tai, the United States trade representative, announced the administration’s position on Wednesday afternoon, as the pandemic continues to spiral in India and South America.

“This is a global health crisis, and the extraordinary circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic call for extraordinary measures,” she said in a statement. “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.”

Support from the White House is not a guarantee that a waiver will be adopted. The European Union has also been standing in the way, and changes to international intellectual property rules require unanimous agreement. Ms. Tai said the United States would participate in negotiations at the World Trade Organization over the matter, but that they would “take time given the consensus-based nature of the institution and the complexity of the issues involved.”

Standing against her will be the pharmaceutical industry, which responded angrily to the extraordinary decision. Stephen J. Ubl, the president and chief executive of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, called the announcement “an unprecedented step that will undermine our global response to the pandemic and compromise safety.”

“This decision will sow confusion between public and private partners, further weaken already strained supply chains and foster the proliferation of counterfeit vaccines,” he said in a statement, adding that the move would have the effect of “handing over American innovations to countries looking to undermine our leadership in biomedical discovery.”

The pharmaceutical industry has argued that a suspension of patent protections would undermine risk-taking and innovation.

“Who will make the vaccine next time?” Brent Saunders, the former chief executive of Allergan, which is now part of AbbVie.

Global health activists, who have been pressing for the waiver, praised the administration’s decision. It is “a truly historic step, which shows that President Biden is committed to being not just an American leader, but a global one,” said Priti Krishtel, an executive director of the Initiative for Medicines, Access & Knowledge.

But the activists said a waiver alone would not increase the world’s vaccine supply. It must be accompanied by a process known as “tech transfer,” in which patent holders supply technical know-how and personnel. Activists are also demanding that Mr. Biden use his leverage to ensure that manufacturing is scaled up around the globe, and not just by the pharmaceutical companies that now hold the patents.

“No U.S.T.R. has made a pronouncement like this,” said Asia Russell, the executive director of Health GAP, a global AIDS treatment advocacy group, using the abbreviation for the trade representative. “And now the actions have to match the words.”

The United States’ announcement is only one step toward a potential international agreement on suspending intellectual property rights. Negotiating the fine print of an agreement that satisfies countries around the world is a tall order. If an agreement can be reached at the World Trade Organization, it is far from clear what would happen next.

Lisa Larrimore Ouellette, a patent law professor at Stanford Law School, suggested that the Biden administration’s move may help sway the drug industry to reach “deals that they can live with.”

Ana Santos Rutschman, a health law expert at Saint Louis University School of Law, said the drug industry now has a clear incentive to “shift the debate to the global equity problem in accessing doses that we can actually produce, as opposed to getting into this enormous fight.” The best bet for companies, she said, may be to take steps like donating more vaccine doses or selling them on a nonprofit basis to lower-income countries in need.

The debate over whether to relax intellectual property rules has stretched on for months. India and South Africa proposed the waiver last fall, seeking to suspend portions of an international intellectual property agreement dealing with issues like patents, copyrights and trade secrets. Under President Donald J. Trump, the United States opposed the effort. Other opponents have included Britain and the European Union.