EU ‘ready to discuss’ COVID vaccine patent waiver as drugmakers push back – Reuters

EU ‘ready to discuss’ COVID vaccine patent waiver as drugmakers push back – Reuters

The European Union is willing to discuss a proposal, now backed by the United States, to waive intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said on Thursday.

The head of the EU executive said the bloc's vaccination effort was accelerating, with 30 Europeans being inoculated per second, while exporting more than 200 million vaccine doses to the rest of the world - contrasting with limited sharing of vaccines by the United States and Britain.

"The EU is also ready to discuss any proposals that address the crisis in an effective and pragmatic manner," von der Leyen said in a speech to the European University Institute in Florence.