Not Reviewed or Certified Any Traditional Medicine for COVID-19: WHO After Coronil Certification

NEW DELHI: Homegrown ayurvedic medicine, Coronil which claimed to boost immunity against COVID-19 has landed up in soup again.

On February 19, Haridwar-based Patanjali Research Institute realised a research paper- suggesting Coronil to be the first proof of evidence-based ayurvedic medicine" to fight coronavirus disease.

According to reports, Union health minister Harsh Vardhan and Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari were also present at the event.

Meanwhile, Coronil has now received certification from Ayush Ministry as per the World Health Organization (WHO) certification scheme.

Following this, the World Health Organization Regional Office for South-East Asia (SEARO) in a tweet wrote, "@WHO has not reviewed or certified the effectiveness of any traditional medicine for the treatment."

"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," said Patanjali in a statement.

Acharya Balkrishna wrote, "We want to clarify to avoid confusion that our WHO GMP compliant COPP certificate to Coronil is issued by DCGI, Government of India. It is clear that WHO do not approve or disapprove any drugs. WHO works for building a better, healthier future for people all over the world."

Earlier on June 23, 2020, Patanjali launched an ayurvedic medicine for treating COVID-19 at the Patanjali Yogpeeth in Haridwar, however, the publicity was asked to be stopped as the medicine lacked clinical approvals.

Terming the ayurvedic medicine as "not an immunity booster but a cure", Ramdev said that an app will soon be launched for the delivery of the Corona kit. "0% death rate and a 100% recovery rate has been observed after the usage of the product.

While 69% of the people recovered within 6 days, 100% of the people recovered within a week, Baba Ramdev claimed, adding that "all questions" relating to this new product will be answered soon.

Patanjali has claimed that the controlled clinical trials were jointly conducted by Patanjali Research Institute, Haridwar, and the National Institute of Medical Sciences in Jaipur.

Balkrishna, the Chairman of the company, said that they had appointed a team of scientists after the COVID-19 outbreak to find a cure for the contagious illness. "Firstly, the simulation was done and compounds were identified which can fight the virus and stop its spread in the body. Then, we conducted a clinical case study on hundreds of positive patients and we have got 100 per cent favourable results," he informed.

Further, Balkrishna had claimed that an Ayurvedic medicine developed by the company has been able to cure COVID-19 patients within 5-14 days.

Lambasting the union health minister, MP-Rajya Sabha, Deputy Leader - Shiv Sena said that "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 &endorse it, is nothing but cheating as well as misleading the nation."

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