Indian Ayurvedic Company’s Herbal Medicine With ‘100% Cure’ For Coronavirus Receives Backlash Over Scientific Data

Amid a global race to find a solution for coronavirus, an Indian company known for Ayurvedic products and medicines announced that it has developed a medicine that offers 100 percent cure for coronavirus patients.

The sensation claim, made by Patanjali Ayurved, was made on Tuesday, June 23. The company, in a statement, claimed that it has discovered a herbal concotion that can provide 100% cure to patients suffering from this deadly respiratory disease.

Patanjali Ayurved launched a Corona Kit, which consist of an ayurvedic pill by the name Coronil, a herbal oil and nasal drops, which they claim can provide 100 percent cure for COVID-19.

Shortly after the announcement and extensive media coverage, the company received a serious backlash from the government bodies as well as the Indian medical fraternity.

India’s Ministry of Ayush, which is responsible for the promotion of alternative forms of medicine such as Yoga, ayurveda and homeopathy, was one of the first ones to question the company’s claim concerning 100 percent success rates.

“Facts of the claim and details of the stated scientific study are not known to the Ministry,” it said in a statement. Furthermore, it asked the company to “stop advertising/publicizing such claims till the issue is duly examined.”

The Ministry has asked Patanjali Ayurved to stop promoting the product until the facts are verified after the submission of the research that was carried out and the results.

Patanjali’s claim is based on its study among a group of approximately 120 people, aged between 15 and 59. However, all of the participants were either asymptomatic or had mild symptoms.

Therefore, the study did not base its data on all the four high category risk groups -- people aged above 60, those with existing co-morbidities, people with respiratory distress and those with oxygen levels less than 90.

The medical fraternity, therefore, claims that the scientific data is not useful as people who are asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic will anyway recover within 10 days without any medicine. Therefore, the claim of 100 percent cure is misleading and false, because it is not applicable for people in the higher risk group category.

“For anything to be considered effective it has to stand the test of a large randomized study to show its efficacy. [For Coronil] we’re not aware of such a study and its results. Just anecdotal experiences are not reliable as there may be many fallacies in it,” said Dr. Naresh Trehan, in a statement.