Yoga guru and founder of Patanjali Ayurved Ramdev on Tuesday said that his company had taken all the required permissions from the production stage to its clinical trials for its preparations that allegedly cures the coronavirus, reported India Today. This came hours after the Ministry of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy, or AYUSH, asked the company to stop advertising about the preparations as a cure.
“We have sent all related information to the AYUSH Ministry today, they will receive it soon,” Ramdev said. “We have presented all details even to the media. We have not violated any laws. We are not doing any promotion or advertisements based on false claims. If we conducted a clinical trial and found that 100% of patients recovered, will we not tell that to people?”
Ramdev added that the AYUSH ministry should be patient and support good work. He added that his company should be pulled up only if it made false claims without holding controlled clinical trials. “But now that our clinical study has shown effective results, the government should also express pride,” he said. “There is no violation of rules or prohibition on us.”
The yoga guru asserted that his company had followed all the requirements of modern science and evidence-based medicine. He questioned that if Ayurveda did not work how would the company’s studies show 100% favourable results. “Coronil has more than 100 active ingredients which are called phytochemicals – these all worked to cure people,” he said. “There is no magic involved.”
However, the licence officer of Uttarakhand Ayurved department claimed Patanjali’s application did not mention that the medicines were to treat the coronavirus, ANI reported. “They didn’t mention coronavirus, we only approved license for immunity booster, cough and fever,” the officer said. “We will issue them a notice asking how they got permission to make the kit.”
Meanwhile, Minister of State for the Ministry of AYUSH Shripad Naik said it was good that Ramdev’s company had given the country a new medicine, but added that it still needed a proper permission. “It is a good thing that Baba Ramdev has given a new medicine to the country but as per rules, it has to come to the Ayush Ministry first,” he said, according to NDTV. “They even said that they have sent a report. We’ll look into it and permission will be given after seeing the report.”
Naik added that anyone can make medicines but they have to go through the ministry’s task force. “Everyone has to send details of the research to the AYUSH ministry for confirmation. This is the rule and no can advertise their products without it,” he said.
On Tuesday, Ramdev claimed that he had found Ayurvedic preparations that cure the coronavirus. The “medicines” were produced through research by Patanjali Research Institute in Haridwar and National Institute of Medical Sciences in Jaipur. The preparations, named Coronil and Swasari, showed 100% favourable results during clinical trials on affected patients at Patanjali Yogpeeth in Haridwar.
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