Ayush Ministry to verify documents of Patanjali Ayurved's 'Coronil' tablet which claims to cure COVID-19

The Ministry of Ayush on Wednesday stated that it will verify the study documents of Patanjali Ayurved's 'Coronil' tablet which claims to cure coronavirus COVID-19. In an official letter, the ministry said, "Ministry will have the study documents verified for validation of the data of the research outcome."

"It is to acknowledge the receipt of subject-related documents of the clinical trial including site of a clinical study and medical research, Institutional Ethics Committee (IEC) clearance, registration details in Clinical Trials Registry of India (CTRI), study protocol, sample size and study results data," it added.

This comes a day after the ministry took cognizance of the news in the media about Ayurvedic medicines developed for the treatment of COVID-19 by Patanjali Ayurved Ltd, Haridwar (Uttrakhand). The ministry said that facts of the claim and details of the stated scientific study are not known to it.

"The concerned Ayurvedic drug manufacturing company has been informed that such advertisements of drugs including Ayurvedic medicines are 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 AYUSH had stated on June 23. 

This ministry directed the Patanjali Ayurved Ltd 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 from data of the study (ies) and stop advertising/publicizing such claims till the issue is duly examined".

Notably, Yoga guru Ramdev's herbal medicine company Patanjali Ayurved had claimed to have discovered a cure for COVID-19 but no medical authority could immediately vouch for the claim of 'Coronil and Swasari' medicine curing the highly contagious disease within seven days.

Patanjali claimed that the two Ayurved-based medicines have shown 100 per cent favourable results during clinical trials on COVID-19 infected patients except those on a life support system. Ramdev told media persons that the medicines have been developed by Patanjali Research Center, Haridwar and privately-owned National Institute of Medical Science, Jaipur following all protocols with clinically controlled trial-based evidence.