An Economic Case for Waiving Intellectual Property Rights on COVID Vaccines

India and South Africa approached World Trade Organization (WTO) to negotiate the temporary waiver of Intellectual Property (IP) rights on COVID-19 vaccines to remove the artificial barrier of patents and boost vaccine production. This commentary advocates for the waiver of IP rights on COVID-19 vaccines. We make a case for the debate on the validity of the COVID-19 vaccine to qualify for a patent. We briefly review the evidence on the association between vaccination and virus mutations. Evidence suggests that waiving patents is vital to increase vaccination worldwide and curb mutation and reduce the risk of more infectious new variants. We discuss the need for non-pharma sectors and the governments of developing countries with large informal sectors to lobby against the IP rights on COVID vaccine because of the economic cost borne by them due to new variants induced fatalities and lockdowns