Ramdev’s ‘Corona’ becomes ‘Coronil’ -Differences with the Union ayush ministry 'sorted out'

An artist paints a mural to honour Covid-19 warriors in Noida on Wednesday. Picture by Prem Singh

Piyush Srivastava   |  TT   |    Lucknow   |  02.07.20   : As a yoga teacher, Ramdev is expected to be skilled in contortions.

But all it has taken him to declare vindication for his purported Covid-19 medicine is a change in its label from “Corona” to “Coronil”, and a 10-rupee cut in its price.

Ramdev on Wednesday re-launched the medicine after renaming it from Corona Kit to Swasari Coronil Kit, saying all the differences with the Union ayush (alternative medicine) ministry had been “sorted out”.

The old Corona Kit, whose promotion by Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurved Limited had attracted a Union ayush ministry rap last week, contained “Coronil” and “Swasari Vati” pills and was priced at Rs 545. The Swasari Coronil Kit is priced at Rs 535.

“We have sorted out all the differences with the ayush ministry. Our medicine pack, containing Coronil and Swasari Vati, will be available in the market from today,” Ramdev told a news conference in Haridwar.

Apparently alluding to a letter received from the Union ayush ministry on Tuesday, he added: “The ayush ministry has praised Patanjali for Covid-19 management. Our critics and opponents of ayurveda have received a fitting reply.”

Uttarakhand ayush minister Harak Singh Rawat, whose department too had sent a notice against the marketing of the Corona Kit, sidestepped questions on whether the state government would allow the renamed medicine to be sold.

“We are going through the Union ayush ministry’s letter to Patanjali,” he told reporters, without revealing the contents of the letter.

Launching the Corona Kit on June 23, Ramdev had said: “Patanjali is the first to complete the challenging job of making the much-awaited medicine for the global pandemic Corona.”

This had prompted the Union ayush ministry to ask the company to stop advertising the medicine as treatment for Covid-19 and seek details of the drugs used and documents relating to Patanjali’s purported studies and trials on the subject.

Rawat’s department too issued a notice to Patanjali saying it had never been given a licence to make a Covid-19 medicine.

Patanjali’s reply to the Union ministry and state government said that Coronil and Swasari Vati were being marketed in keeping with the company’s licence for making immunity boosters against cough and fever, Bal Krishna, head of Patanjali’s medicine department, told reporters on Tuesday.

“We never claimed we had made medicines for corona patients; we only said our medicine was effective in treating corona patients,” he said.

Last week, Bal Krishna had claimed: “Hundreds of scientists of the Patanjali Research Institute have worked effortlessly, first on clinical case studies and later on controlled clinical trials, while following all the protocols of drug discovery to find a complete ayurvedic medicine for corona: Coronil and Swasari Vati.”

Among the cities where the purported studies and trials had been conducted, he had named Meerut. But the Uttar Pradesh government said it knew nothing about any such studies or trials.