Macron also took aim at the US specifically, remarking that the country reserved homemade doses of vaccines for domestic use. French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday he was ready to discuss waiving Covid-19 vaccine patents but more important was the US and UK ending export restrictions on vaccines and their raw materials. That contrasted with the EU's export so far of more than 200 million vaccine doses, which European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen has said showed Europe is "the pharmacy of the world". EU officials said the big problem in increasing global vaccine production was not intellectual property protection but ensuring countries such as the US were not hoarding vaccine inputs. In Brussels, EU officials briefing journalists on the European Commission's stance in the debate said the US position so far was not fully fleshed out.

Source: News 24 May 07, 2021 18:56 UTC