Yoga guru Baba Ramdev-founded Patanjali on Monday launched Ayurvedic medicines ‘Divya Coronil’ and 'Divya Swasari Vati' as cure for Covid-19, claiming that in a clinical controlled trial, the rate of recovery was 100 per cent.
At a press conference, the company shared results of a randomised double-blind clinical trial conducted by Patanjali Research Institute in collaboration with the National Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS University) on 100 Covid-19 patients.
“In the group that was given the drugs, 69 per cent tested negative for Covid-19 on the third day. By the seventh day, all patients in the drug arm recovered. There were no deaths observed in the study,” said Ramdev.
Ayush Ministry move
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Ayush has said that it is not aware of the facts of the claims and details of the stated scientific study by the company.
“Patanjali Ayurved Ltd has been asked to provide at the earliest details of the name and composition of the medicines being claimed for Covid treatment; site(s)/hospital(s) where the research study was conducted for Covid-19; protocol, sample size, Institutional Ethics Committee clearance, CTRI registration, and results data of the study (ies),” it said.
It has also asked Patanjali to stop advertising or publicising its claims till the issue is duly examined. The Ministry has also requested the concerned State licensing authority of Uttrakhand to provide copies of the licence and product approval details of the Ayurvedic medicines that are being usedfor the treatment of Covid.
30-day drug kit
The drug kit is priced at ₹545 for a 30-day dose. According to the firm, drugs to be taken for Covid-19 include Divya Swasari Vati, Giloy, Ashwagandha and Tulsi Ghanvati tablets and another tablet named Divya Coronil as well nasal therapy through Divya Anu Taila. It said Giloy, Tulsi and Ashwagandha tablets can be interchangeably used with Divya Coronil tablet, which is a packed tablet with the aforementioned compounds and hence similar in nature and effect. The company also said that these drugs will be available in the market within a week.
“These Ayurvedic drugs obstruct the replication process and mitigate its infection by increasing the body’s fighter cells, thereby controlling the current outbreak,” the company claims in its drug brochure.
But, the brochure states that if the patient experiences any emergency, critical situation and difficulty in breathing, he/she must follow medical procedures prescribed by the Central government.
Experts’ take
This is anyway a golden rule to be followed by all patients, no matter they are on the Ayurvedic drug or not, say experts. Claiming it as a sure-shot cure is problematic, they add.
SP Kalantri, Professor of Medicine at the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences in Wardha, Maharashtra, said that if the study investigators picked up only mild cases, then even a sugar pill would make most patients recover on their own. “Short of these details, we cannot say if the Ayurvedic drug for Covid-19 is both effective and safe,” he observed.
Patanjali has yet not published the data from its study in any journal. “The scientific prospects of these Ayurvedic medicines are currently under the peer review process for their publication in esteemed journals of international repute,” the company states.
“We need to have more data on the study. What was the research question, who was enrolled in the study or who were left out, the details of the interventions, how the patients were monitored, outcome measures and statistical analysis to know if the difference between the two arms of the study (intervention group that was given the drug and control group which was given placebo) was by chance or by the drug itself,” Kalantri pointed out.