Coronavirus treatment: Patanjali to share outcome of clinical trial of its COVID-19 drug, claims 'major breakthrough'

Patanjali Ayurvedic Medicines has announced that it will disclose the outcome of its controlled clinical trial of randomised placebo on COVID-19 patients.

The research was jointly conducted by the Patanjali Research Institute, Haridwar and the National Institute of Medical Science, Jaipur.

Co-founder Baba Ramdev and Managing Director Acharya Balkrishna will address the media at 12 noon on June 23 (today), to share “the major breakthrough in cure of COVID-19,” the company said. The team of scientist, researchers and doctors involved in the trials will also be present at the video conference.

Medicines from the research are being manufactured by Divya Pharmacy, Haridwar and Patanjali Ayurved, Haridwar, it added.

In an earlier interaction Balkrishna told Moneycontrol that the company had launched clinical trials on humans to find a cure for COVID-19 after receiving regulatory approvals.

"We are not talking about an immunity booster.  We are talking about a cure," he said. The clinical trials have begun in Indore and in Jaipur after Patanjali secured permission in early June.

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The decision to diversify into the hunt for a cure for the deadly pandemic is unusual for Patanjali because the rush to develop treatments for COVID-19 has so far been led by Big Pharma.

Large pharmaceutical companies such as Gilead Sciences, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, Moderna, Inovio Pharmaceutcials and GlaxoSmithKline, among others, are racing to find a successful vaccine.

Balacharya, as Acharya Balkrishna is popularly referred to, said the group began treating people for COVID-19 as early as in February 2020. "By March, we had already treated several thousand people.  But they were not part of an evidence-based, clinical trial.  To get our discovery registered as a cure, we had to go through clinical trials," he had added.