New Delhi: Patanjali had not disclosed that its new medicine kit was for COVID-19 while applying for licence, an official in Uttarakhand said on Wednesday.
Yoga guru Ramdev had earlier claimed that the new kit is both a cure and preventive for coronavirus. He also added that the medicine was tested successfully on COVID-19 patients.
The state licensing authority (SLA) of Uttarakhand will be sending a letter to the Haridwar-based Patanjali Ayurveda for branding Coronil as a cure for COVID-19.
If Patanjali has made a false claim, it may face charges under two Acts — the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, and the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954 — the SLA told ThePrint.
“We will be sending a letter to Patanjali by Wednesday. We haven’t approved the product for COVID-19 but only to boost immunity and treat cough, fever,” joint director, SLA, Uttarakhand Dr Y.S. Rawat said.
Patanjali had reportedly sought a licence for an “immunity booster and a cough and fever cure”. However, the company marketed it as a cure and preventive for coronavirus, following which the Ministry of Ayush asked the company to stop promotions and submit details of the medicines, results of its research, the hospitals where the research was conducted, whether the company had a clearance from the Institutional Ethics Committee and whether it had registered for the clinical trials.
“As per Patanjali’s application, we issued them licence. They didn’t mention coronavirus, we only approved licence for immunity booster, cough and fever. We’ll issue them a notice asking how they got permission to make the kit (for COVID-19),” the Licence Officer at Uttarakhand Ayurveda Department was quoted as telling news agency ANI.
“Anyone can make medicines. Anyone who wants to make medicines has to go through the Ayush ministry 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,” Ayush Minister Shripad Naik had said on Wednesday morning.
Patanjali CEO Acharya Balkrishna had also tweeted that “communication gap has been done away with” the Ayush Ministry. “This govt provides encouragement and pride to Ayurveda. Communication gap has been done away with and we have 100% fulfilled all standard parameters for Randomised Placebo-Controlled Clinical Trials. We’ve given info for the same to Ministry of AYUSH,” he added.
