Coronil, the self-proclaimed medicine for Covid-19 developed by Patanjali Ayurved has received the ire of Indian Medical Association (IMA) as the manufacturer claims this product to be “the first evidence-based medicine” for the novel coronavirus.
Though Coronil is not a Health-Ministry approved medicine for Covid-19, it has got the Certificate of Pharmaceutical Product from Ayush section of Central Drugs Standard Control Organization, Health Ministry of India. With this certificate, Patanjali gets the option to export this product to other nations.
The Ayush Ministry on the other hand has recognized this product as a medicine for supporting measure in COVID-19 and an immune-booster. But in the eyes of IMA Coronil remains as an unscientific product. IMA also expressed that it was saddened to see the Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan taking part in the launch of this product.
Although Patanjali’s Coronil is not actually promoted as a cure for Covid-19, the company calling it a scientific product is not going well with IMA.
Patanjali on the other hand, said that their product is WHO-GMP certified. Baba Ramdev, the company’s promoter said that WHO’s team visited Patanjali and granted licence for the product for sale in 150 countries. This was later revealed to be a false-statement as the WHO had clarified that it had not done anything of such sorts, and rubbished Baba’s claim.
Unable to take IMA’s criticism, Patanjali’s spokesperson, SK Tijarawala retorted that it would have been better if the IMA curbed the looting of patients and put an end to commission in the medical profession.
Unlike the spokesperson, the company’s Chief Executive Officer Acharya Balkrishna took a soft approach, and invited IMA for a discussion over Coronil. He posted on Facebook “Let us discuss in front of nation or apologize for the baseless non-scientific allegations,” “We at Patanjali are pro-science but anti-conspiracy!”