Jaipur: Rajasthan’s Health Department has served a notice to NIMS hospital here seeking an explanation on conducting trials of Patanjali Ayurved’s drug Coronil on coronavirus patients, an official said on Friday.
“We served notice to the hospital on Wednesday evening seeking explanation in three days. The hospital did not inform the state government nor sought permission,” Chief Medical and Health Officer, Jaipur, Dr Narottam Sharma said.
He said the reply from National Institute of Medical Science (NIMS), Jaipur is awaited.
The launch of the drug by yoga guru Ramdev on Tuesday triggered a debate after which the Ayush Ministry sought all information on its trial and put a ban on advertising it as a drug to cure coronavirus.
The Rajasthan government has clarified that the drug cannot be not used as a medicine in the state without the permission of the Ministry of AYUSH.
State Health Minister Raghu Sharma had said on Wednesday that strict action would be taken against the seller as per the rules in case of sale of any drug as a medicine to treat the coronavirus infection.
At the Coronil launch, the company had claimed that its medicine can cure the contagious disease within seven days.
It said Coronil, taken along with another product developed by it, had shown a 100 per cent success rate in clinical trials on infected patients, except those on life support.
Ramdev said the medicines were developed by Patanjali Research Center, Haridwar in association with privately-owned National Institute of Medical Science (NIMS), Jaipur.
The Uttarakhand government will serve a notice to Patanjali Ayurved 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.
Apart from the notice from the Uttarakhand government, the Haridwar-based firm could also face litigation in Bihar. A complaint has been filed against it in a Muzaffarpur court over its claim.
A complainant approached the court seeking the registration of an FIR against Ramdev and company chairman Acharya Balkrishna, alleging that they put at risk the lives of lakhs of people by claiming to have developed a COVID-19 cure.
Chief Judicial Magistrate Mukesh Kumar posted the matter for hearing on June 30.
Also read: Modi govt steps up pressure on Patanjali, seeks more information on Coronil study
On what basis did the government give license to manufacture even as an immunity booster, even for cough and fever?
Of course, these Patanjali frauds then turned around and sold it as covid immunity.
But even if they did not, immunity boosters are almost always based on junk science.
Most of what people believe just isn’t true. Even Vitamin C is useless in normal and healthy people eating normal diets. It just gets passed out in urine without being used by the body. There is no proven science basis behind most supplements, modern or traditional. They are almost always scams.
Journalists should also look into other “trials” conducted at this NIMS. Bad research support usually does not happen in isolation. They would have done several other faux trials like this to feel emboldened to get away with it.