The Indian Medical Association, the largest body of physicians and medical students in the country, termed as “blatant lie,” a claim by an entrepreneur that he has a WHO certification for a medicine to fight the Covid-19 virus.
Baba Ramdev, the founder of Patanjali Ayurveda, has said his “so-called” Coronil, could be used for prevention, treatment, and post-Covid phase, according to the body. It was unveiled in the presence of the federal health minister last week.
“It was claimed by Baba Ramdev with the Hon’ble Health Minister that the said Coronil ayurvedic medicine has got DCGI (Drugs Controller General of India) approval and WHO certification.”
Denial
WHO’s regional office for South-East Asia posted on its official Twitter handle noting “@WHO has not reviewed or certified the effectiveness of any traditional medicine for the treatment of #Covid19.”
The Coronil kit, which comprises three different Ayurvedic medicines, holds a certificate of a pharmaceutical product (CoPP) and is recognized by the World Health Organisation’s Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), according to the company.
“We want to clarify to avoid confusion that our WHO GMP compliant COPP certificate to Coronil is issued by DCGI, Government of India,” Patanjali CEO Acharya Balkrishna said.
Both the standards define quality assurance in medicinal products.
Questions
“WHO does not approve or disapprove any drugs. Instead, it works for building a better and healthier future for people all over the world,” Mr. Balkrishna said.
The Kolkata-headquartered medical association, with more than 300,000 member doctors and 1,700 branches in the country, in a statement, raised a series of questions for the health minister of India.
“How appropriate and rational is it to release such false projections in front of the whole country? Being a Health Minister of the country, how justified, is it to release such falsely fabricated unscientific product?
“How ethical is it to promote the product in unethical, wrong, and false ways to the whole country? Being a modern medicine doctor, how ethical is it to promote the unscientific product.” If Coronil was effective, why was the government spending ₹35,000 crore for vaccination?
Booster
The government’s AYUSH Ministry had earlier said Coronil can be sold only as an immunity-booster and not as a cure.
The ministry comprises of Ayurveda, yoga & naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy are meant to develop education, research, and propagation of indigenous alternative medicine systems in India.
“Being the Health Minister of the country and a modern medicine doctor, can you clarify the scientific results of the clinical trials, if any, for the so-called clinical trial and of this anti-Corona product promoted by you?” according to the statement.
The Indian Medical Association, which is a founder member of the World Medical Association, said it would take up the matter with the National Medical Commission for disrespecting the code of conduct of the Medical Council of India.