Ayush ministry asks Patanjali to furnish details of COVID drug

Hyderabad: Patanjali, on 23 June, claimed to have discovered the cure for the novel corona virus and launched 'Coronil and Swasari' which can allegedly cure the highly-contagious disease within seven days. The ministry of Ayush, however, has asked Patanjali to stop advertising such claims until the drugs are fully examined.

The ministry has asked Patanjali to provide, at the earliest, details of the name and composition of the alleged COVID medicines. It also demanded details about “site(s)/hospital(s), where the research study was conducted for COVID-19; protocol, sample size, Institutional Ethics Committee clearance, CTRI registration and result data of the study (ies)" and asked the company to "stop advertising/publicizing such claims till the issue is duly examined". The ministry has also requested the state licensing authority of Uttrakhand to provide copies of the license and product approval details of the ayurvedic medicines.

Yoga guru Ramdev has claimed that his ayurvedic drugs have shown 100 per cent favourable results during the clinical trial. During the launch of the medicine in Haridwar, he said, "The whole country and the world were waiting for the medicine or vaccine for corona virus. We are proud to announce that the first ayurvedic, clinically controlled trial based evidence and research-based medicine has been prepared by the combined efforts of Patanjali Research Centre and National Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS)."

He further said that during the clinical trials, 69 per cent patients recovered in three days, and 100 patients recovered in seven days, adding, the medicine is useful for the prevention of COVID-19 and also its treatment. He claimed that no infected patient lost his life during the trial.