On 12th November 2022, the Uttarakhand government revoked the ban imposed on five medicines by Patanjali.
Earlier on Wednesday, 9th November 2022, the Uttarakhand Ayurveda and Unani Licensing Authority directed Divya Pharmacy, the maker of Patanjali products, to stop the production of its five medicines viz. BPgrit, Madhugrit, Thyrogrit, Lipidom, and Eyegrit Gold tablets. The ban was imposed after the allegation that these medicines are falsely being promoted for the treatment of blood pressure, diabetes, goitre, glaucoma, and high cholesterol.
In a letter addressed to the Divya Pharmacy, the licensing officer of Uttarakhand Ayurveda and Unani Services wrote, “Please kindly take the reference of Directorate’s letter dated 09.11.2022 in which the medicines Divya Madhugrit Tablet, Divya Eyegrit Gold, Divya Thyrogrit Tablet, Divya BPgrit Tablet, and Divya Lipidom Tablet being manufactured by your firm are made to stop the manufacturing of. In this regard, as per the provisions mentioned in the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, the firm is given 15 days instead of one week to submit its response.”
The letter further said, “Modifying the ban imposed by mistake on the manufacture of the above medicines according to the letter dated 9th November 2022, the permission is granted to keep the production intact.”
Divya Pharmacy published a press release on this issue after receiving this letter. In this press release, it says, “Patanjali Institute is the first in the world to get an acceptance for Ayurveda medicines as research and evidence-based medicine with 30 years of continuous effort and research.”
“The Honourable Prime Minister is also making efforts to establish the pride of his heritage by erasing the signs of all kinds of slavery in the country. The ignorant, insensitive, inept Ayurveda licensing officer of Uttarakhand is not only tarnishing the sage tradition of Ayurveda but the injudicious work and errors of an officer have done a grossly condemnable act of questioning the tradition and authentic research of Ayurveda, tarnishing it. And defamed Patanjali maliciously. Such conspiracies are done by people opposed to Yoga-Ayurveda and Indian tradition,” it further read.
The statement further said, “It is our duty to make Ayurveda victorious by countering them with scientific research facts and evidence. The department whose job was to establish Ayurveda as the national system of medicine while bringing glory to Ayurveda is engaged in eradicating Ayurveda by defaming Ayurveda. We can never accept this unfortunate act. Patanjali is the first institution in the world to have published the most research papers globally. It has two NABH-accredited hospitals and several NABL-accredited research labs of international standards. More than 500 world-class scientists are providing services here.”
आयुर्वेद को बदनाम करने के इस अविवेकपूर्ण कार्य का संज्ञान लेकर उत्तराखण्ड सरकार ने जिस प्रकार भूल का सुधार किया उसके लिए हम सरकार के प्रति कृतज्ञ हैं कि सरकार द्वारा संज्ञान लेकर इस त्रुटि का सुधार किया गया। pic.twitter.com/1fFffziwMk
— Acharya Balkrishna (@Ach_Balkrishna) November 12, 2022
The press release added, “In these 75 years of independence, no government or any other institution has done the work done to take Yoga-Ayurveda to the world. We are deeply hurt by the kind of actions committed by an officer. Patanjali will continue its fight against any conspiracy in any way in the establishment of Ayurveda and Yoga or will join any medical mafia or anti-Sanatan conspirators, against him within the scope of the law.”
“We are grateful to the government for the way the Uttarakhand government corrected the mistake by taking cognisance of this imprudent act of defaming Ayurveda and this error was corrected as the government took the cognizance,” said the press release, which was also shared by Acharya Balkrishna – the managing director of Patanjali Ayurved Limited.
The five Patanjali medicines were banned on 9th November 2022, in response to a complaint filed by Kerala-based ophthalmologist KV Babu in July earlier this year. Babu sent another complaint to the State Licensing Authority (SLA) on October 11 through email. In the meanwhile, Dr. GCN Jangapangi requested in a letter to the joint director of Divya Pharmacy and drug controller of the state health authority that the pharmacy immediately and going forward remove “misleading and objectionable ads” from the media space.
Citing misleading ads the regulator also directed that Patanjali submit updated formulation sheets and label claims for each of the five formulations for a new round of product certification. The business could only resume manufacturing, according to the ban order of the health authorities, if the updated indications have been authorized.
