New Delhi: After news reports surfaced Thursday, November 10, of Uttarakhand authorities asking Patanjali Divya Pharmacy – founded by Yoga guru Baba Ramdev – to stop the production of five of its products, the company has denied receiving any notice on the same and has alleged a conspiracy by an “anti-ayurveda mafia”.Officials of the Uttarakhand’s Ayurvedic and Unani Services on Thursday issued a letter to the company asking it to stop the production of five products – Divya Madhugrit, Divya Eyegrit Gold, Divya Thyrogrit, Divya BPgrit, and Divya Lipidom – and to stop advertising them as well. Patanjali claims that these products help treat diabetes, eye infection, thyroid, blood pressure and cholesterol.The letter, undersigned by licence officer Dr G.C.S. Jangpangi, read that a team constituted by the Ayurveda regulator will review the formulation sheets of the aforementioned drugs and would also need to give approval to any advertisements the Patanjali-owned Divya Pharmacy runs in the future.According to a report in the Hindu, if the advertisements continue to be run in the absence of this approval, the company would draw charges under the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisement) Act and rule 170 of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, which deals with misleading advertisements and exaggerated claims specifically regarding Ayurveda, Unani and Siddha products.Jangpangi’s letter reportedly came after an ophthalmologist in Kerala filed a complaint against Patanjali with the State Licencing Authority (SLA) for an advertisement in which the company claimed that using its eyedrops could be useful in treating cataracts, glaucoma and other eye issues. The ophthalmologist, Dr K.V. Babu reportedly told the newspaper that if these conditions went untreated, they could prove fatal and thus, the advertisements were a “threat to human life”.Patanjali issued a statement thereafter in which it noted that it had not received a copy of Jangpangi’s letter, but alleged that it was “conspiratorially written and circulated among the media”, according to a report in NDTV.“All the products and medicines made by Patanjali are made follow prescribed standards, fulfilling all statutory processes and international standards with the highest research and quality in the Ayurveda tradition, with the help of more than 500 scientists,” NDTV quoted Patanjali’s statement as saying.Ramdev’s company thus sought for the administration to take action against the purported conspirators, otherwise threatening to initiate legal proceedings to compensate for the “institutional loss” it claims to have incurred.Last year, a number of doctors’ associations had come together to file a petition against Patanjali alleging misrepresentation and creating a public nuisance for how it marketed its product, ‘Coronil’, as a cure for COVID-19.Also read: The Broken Science in Patanjali’s Coronil StudyIn July, Ramdev’s company told the court that it was willing to issue a public clarification in the matter regarding Coronil as an immunity booster and not a treatment for the disease. However, in an August hearing, it presented the clarification, which included the following section:“It is categorically and expressly clarified that the product Coronil apart from being an immunity booster, especially against respiratory tract involvement and for all types of fever, is additionally an evidence-based supporting measure for management of Covid-19.”“…Coronil was tested on symptomatic Covid-19 patients which resulted in successful recovery of all such patients. It is in this backdrop Coronil was said to be a cure. However, it was later clarified that Coronil is only a supplementary measure for Covid-19,” the draft clarification further read.This ‘clarification’ was rejected by both the petitioners and the court, with the latter remarking that it read “more like a pat on the back” than a clarification. In subsequent hearings of the case, the court came down heavily on the company for “misleading” the public into thinking the product was a cure for COVID-19.
