The European Union is willing to discuss a proposal to waive intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen confirmed the news on Thursday (May 6).

She said the bloc's vaccination effort was accelerating.

And that it was also exporting millions of vaccine doses to the rest of the world.

South Africa and India made the initial vaccine waiver proposal at the World Trade Organization in October.

They gathered support from a large number of developing countries.

The World Health Organization said in April that of 700 million vaccines globally administered, only 0.2% had been in low-income countries.

Until now the EU has backed a group of countries opposing the waiver.

Many of these are home to large pharmaceutical companies including Britain and Switzerland.

They argue it would undermine incentives for firms who have produced coronavirus vaccines in record time to do so in a future pandemic.

And that waiving patents would not instantly resolve the problem, with a lack of sufficient manufacturing capacity.

The United States said on Wednesday it supported the waiver.

Although its trade chief cautioned that negotiations would take time.