In late June 2020, Baba Ramdev-backed Patanjali Ayurveda had introduced Coronil, what it claimed was medicine to cure COVID-19, long before some of the biggest names in the pharma industry could come up with a vaccine.
But in the days that followed, Coronil and the claims made by Patanjali were extensively scrutinized and the conclusion was that things don't add up.
In July Patanjali made a u-turn and said that it never claimed to have made medicine for coronavirus.
And the company continued to sell Coronil as an immunity booster.
But on Friday, Yoga Guru Ramdev released a research paper on the "first evidence-based medicine for COVID-19 by Patanjali".
Speaking at the launch event, Ramdev said that the research paper will clear all 'suspicions' related to Patanjali's COVID-19 medicine Coronil.
"When we launched Coronil, people raised questions on its validity and asked if we followed scientific parameters. People think research can only happen in foreign countries. With this research, we have cleared all suspicions about Coronil," said Ramdev.
"Coronil has received the Certificate of Pharmaceutical Product (CoPP) from the Ayush section of Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation as per the WHO certification scheme," said Patanjali in a statement.
Under CoPP, Coronil can now be exported to 158 countries.
Commenting on the development Swami Ramdev said, Coronil will help humanity while providing affordable treatment based on naturopathy.
On the basis of presented data, the Ministry of Ayush has recognised Coronil Tablet as a medicine for "supporting measure in COVID-19."
When it was originally introduced last year Patanjali had claimed that during the clinical trials on COVID-19 patients, they've shown a 100 % recovery rate.?
The company had then said that conducted two trials of these, first clinical controlled study, which took place in Delhi, Ahmedabad, among many other cities. Under this 280 patients were included and 100 per cent of them recovered.?
But after discrepancies emerged about the claims and how the clinical tests were carried out, Patanjali said it never claimed to make corona medicine. Rather,?corona patients have been cured?with this medicine. The drug was made under the license issued by the Ayush Ministry.
The Uttarakhand's Ayurveda department had also said the firm had only applied for a licence to manufacture an immunity booster, and not a cure for COVID-19.