Patanjali, the Ayurveda company founded by Yoga guru Baba Ramdev, on Tuesday, said that the clinical trials that it had conducted for Covid-19 treatment have been registered with Clinical Trials Registry of India.
Acharya Balkrishna, Chairman, tweeted that Patanjali has cleared the communication gap with the government and the standard protocols were fulfilled for the randomised placebo-controlled clinical trials, and has submitted this information to Ayush Ministry. He also said that the current government promotes Ayurveda.
The reply came after the Ministry of Ayush earlier said that it is not aware of the facts of the claims and details of the stated scientific study by the company.
“Patanjali Ayurved Ltd has been asked 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 data of the study (ies),” it said.
It had also asked Patanjali to stop advertising or publicising its claims till the issue is duly examined. The Ministry has also requested the concerned State licensing authority of Uttarakhand to provide copies of the licence and product approval details of the Ayurvedic medicines that are being used for the treatment of Covid.
On Tuesday, the company launched Ayurvedic medicines ‘Divya Coronil’ and ‘Divya Swasari Vati’ for Covid-19, claiming that it was a cure. At a press conference, the company shared results of a randomised double-blind clinical trial conducted by Patanjali Research Institute, in collaboration with the National Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS University), on 100 Covid-19 patients.
“In the group that was given the drugs, 69 per cent tested negative for Covid-19 on the third day. By the seventh day, all patients in the drug arm recovered. There were no deaths observed in the study,” said Ramdev.
Patanjali has yet not published the data from its study in any journal. “The scientific prospects of these Ayurvedic medicines are currently under the peer review process for their publication in esteemed journals of international repute,” the company states.