On the 21st of February, Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali company made headlines over Coronil, an immunity booster for the Novel Coronavirus or COVID-19.
The company made clear the news regarding Coronil and it’s approval from the World Health Organisation (WHO.) The clarification from the company came after a section of the media claimed Coronil of getting a nod from the Central Government and the WHO. The controversial statement and media claims started with the launch event of Coronil as an immunity booster for COVID-19.
During the launch event on the 19th of February, Patanjali in a statement said, “Coronil has received the Certificate of Pharmaceutical Product (CoPP) from the Ayush section of Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation as per the WHO certification scheme.”
Rakesh Mittal, one of the top executives at Patanjali Ayurved, gave credibility to the claim with his statement. He said “recognised by WHO Patanjali has made history in the field of Ayurveda as Coronil has been recognized by WHO as First Evidence Based Medicine for Corona (Novel Coronavirus.)”
However, after the controversy he deleted his tweet.
In regard to this rumour, both Patanjali and the WHO issued clarifications and put a full stop to the rumours.
The Managing Director (MD) of Patanjali Ayurved Limited, Acharya Balkrishna said, “We want to clarify to avoid confusion that our WHO Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) compliant certificate of pharmaceutical product (CoPP) certificate to Coronil is issued by DCGI, Government of India. It is clear that WHO do not (does not) approve or disapprove (of) any drugs. (The) WHO works for building a better, healthier future for people all over the world(sic.)”
In addition, the WHO official also cleared their stand regarding Coronil and said, ” (The) WHO has not reviewed or certified the effectiveness of any traditional medicine for the treatment #COVID19.”
The matter took a political turn after the opposition Indian National Congress (INC) and the Shiv Sena leaders took a dig at the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for approving Coronil and making such false claims.
Priyanka Chaturvedi, a Member of Parliament (MP) of Shiv Sena said, “I hope our Health Minister stops embarrassing the nation with such claims to promote Coronil. I strongly believe in Ayurveda but to claim it as a WHO guaranteed cure against COVID-19 and endorse it, is nothing but cheating as well as misleading the nation.”
This is not the first time, Baba Ramdev’s Coronil made controversies.
In June 2020, Patanjali claimed the Coronil Kit worth Rs. 545 to be a 100 % cure for the COVID-19 infection.
The claim was questioned by the Maharashtra Government and the Uttarakhand Government.
The Uttarakhand Government also served a notice to Patanjali for launching a drug claiming to be a cure for COVID-19 when it had only applied for a licence to manufacture an immunity booster against cough and fever.
Later, the company relaunched their Coronil kit claiming it to be an immunity booster for COVID-19 infection.
