The Centre on Tuesday said it has taken cognizance of the reports of an Ayurvedic medicine manufactured by Patanjali, which the company claims can cure COVID-19.
The Ministry of AYUSH said it has taken cognizance of the news about "Ayurvedic medicines developed for the treatment of COVID-19 by Patanjali". Facts of the claim and details of the stated scientific study are not known to the ministry, it said.
The medicine was launched by Yoga Guru Baba Ramdev who claimed that 'Coronil and Swasari' can cure COVID-19.
This came on the day the number of coronavirus cases in India touched 4.4 lakh while the death toll crossed 14,000.
"The concerned Ayurvedic drug manufacturing company has been informed that such advertisements of drugs including Ayurvedic medicines am regulated under the provisions of Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954 and Rules thereunder and the directives issued by the Central Government in the wake of COVID outbreak," the Ministry of AYUSH said.
Ministry had also issued a Gazette Notification on April 21, 2020 stating the requirements and the manner the research studies on COVID-19 with Ayush interventions and medicines should be undertaken.
Patanjali has been asked to provide details of the name and composition of the medicines and other related information.
"In order to make this Ministry aware of the facts of the aforesaid news and verify the claims, Patanjali Ayurved Ltd has been asked to provide at the earliest details of the name and composition of the medicines being claimed for COVID treatment; site(s)/hospital(s), where the research study was conducted for COVID-19; protocol, sample size, Institutional Ethics Committee clearance, CTRI registration and results data of the study (ies) and stop advertising/publicizing such claims till the issue is duly examined," the ministry said.
Ministry has also requested concerned State Licensing Authority of Uttrakhand government to provide copies of license and product approval details of the Ayurvedic medicines being claimed for the treatment of COVID -19.
While launching the drug, Ramdev on Tuesday claimed that the medicine is clinically controlled and based on research, evidence, and trial, following which it has been found that the medicine cures 69% of patients in three days and 100% of patients in 7 days.
"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 NIMS," Yoga Guru Ramdev said at the press conference at the Patanjali Yopeeth in Haridwar, adding that it has shown "100% recovery rate within 3-7 days."
"We are launching COVID medicines Coronil and Swasari today. We conducted two trials of these, first clinical controlled study, which took place in Delhi, Ahmedabad, among many other cities. Under this 280 patients were included and 100% of those recovered. We were able to control Corona and its complications in this. After this the all-important clinical control trial was conducted," he added.
With an increase of 14,933 new cases and 312 deaths in the last 24 hours, India's COVID-19 count reached 4,40,215 on Tuesday. According to the latest update by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), 14,011 deaths have been recorded due to the infection in the country so far.
