Coronil row: Patanjali claims it broke no rules in license process for Covid-19 “medicine”

PTI, Jun 26, 2020, 10:03 AM IST

New Delhi: Under flak over the launch of a drug it claims to be a cure for COVID-19, yoga guru Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurved on Thursday, June 25 insisted that it broke no law.

“There is no room for confusion,” the herbal products company said in a tweet.

“The licence for the drug was obtained on the basis of the traditional knowledge and experience related to the medicinal virtues of Ashwagandha, Giloy and Tulsi,” Patanjali spokesperson S K Tijarawala said.

“The positive results of the clinical trials conducted legally on corona patients were shared,” he added.

In another tweet, the company said that no illegal claim has been made on the label of the medicine.

“Manufacture and sale of medicine is carried out as per the rules laid down by the government and not in accordance with someone’s personal belief or ideology,” it said.

“Patanjali has complied with all legalities,” it said asking people to refrain from unnecessary commentary on the issue.

CEO Acharya Balkrishna said that the company followed all procedures to manufacture the medicine. “We applied for the licence based on classical evidence of the compounds used in the medicine. We worked on the compounds and put out the results of the clinical trial before people”, he told ANI.

The Haridwar-based company on Tuesday launched “Coronil”, claiming it can cure COVID-19.

The company said that the drug, when taken with another Patanjali product, had cured all coronavirus positive patients who took part in a trial within seven days.

Balkrishna said that Patanjali had not advertised Coronil. “We just tried to tell people about the effects of the medicine, he said.

The trial, it said, was conducted in association with the National Institute of Medical Sciences, a Jaipur-based private institute.

Hours after the launch of the drug, the AYUSH ministry had asked Patanjali Ayurved to provide details on the research leading up to it and its composition, telling the company to stop advertising it till the issue is examined.

On Wednesday, a Uttarakhand official said that Patanjali Ayurved had only applied for a licence to manufacture an immunity booster against cough and fever.

“There was nothing in their application related to the treatment of coronavirus,” the state Ayurved department’s licence officer Y S Rawat had said.

“The company was being sent a notice, asking for an explanation,” the department said.

Meanwhile, Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh on Thursday warned the yoga guru that the state government won’t allow the sale of “spurious” medicines.