German Chancellor Angela Merkel has urged the United States to export coronavirus vaccines made on its soil, as she rejected a patent waiver call from Washington for the jabs.

“Now that a further part of the American population has been vaccinated, I hope that we can come to a free exchange of components and an opening of the market for vaccines,” she said, adding the EU has exported a big chunk of jabs made in the bloc and that should “be the rule”.

Speaking at a press conference after talks with EU leaders, Merkel reiterated her opposition to calls for pharmaceutical companies to drop their intellectual property protection for the vaccines.

“I do not think that a patent waiver is the solution to make more vaccines available to more people,” she said.