The Ministry of AYUSH has asked Patanjali to stop airing advertisements asserting that its medicines claiming cure for Covid-19 as Patanjali has claimed that its medicines ‘Coronil and Swasari’ can help patients recover from COVID-19 within seven days.
The Ministry said that the facts and details of the study on the basis of which Patanajali is making such claims are not known to it, and directed the company to stop advertising the ‘medicines’ till the issue is examined.The AYUSH Ministry has insisted that government notification bars companies from advertising a ‘cure’ without government approval.
According to Patanjali, the medicines have been developed by Patanjali Research Centre, Haridwar, and privately-owned National Institute of Medical Science, Jaipur, following all protocols with clinically controlled trial-based evidence. However, Patanjali Ayurved has been asked by the AYUSH Ministry to provide details of the name and composition of the medicines in question, the site(s)/hospital(s) where the research study was conducted, the protocol followed, sample size, Institutional Ethics Committee clearance, CTRI registration and results data of the studies at the earliest.
The ministry had also issued a notification on April 21 stipulating the requirements and the way the research studies on COVID-19 with AYUSH interventions/medicines should be undertaken.
Advertisements of Ayurvedic medicines are regulated under the provisions of Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954 and Rules thereunder, as well as directives issued by the central government in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak.
