Not Making Any False Advertisement: Patanjali Ayurved

Baba Ramdev-led Patanjali Ayurved on Wednesday said it was not making any 'false advertisements or propaganda' regarding its products, and said it would not object if the Supreme Court were to impose a fine or 'even give us a death sentence' if found making misleading claims.

A day after the apex court cautioned the company against making 'false' and 'misleading' claims in advertisements about its medicines as cure of several diseases, Patanjali Ayurved said it has 'database with more than one crore people, with real world evidence, preclinical and clinical evidence'.

"Patanjali have made thousands of people free from several diseases like BP, sugar, thyroid, asthma, arthritis, obesity, liver and kidney failure, and cancer," the company asserted.

The company further said, "We humbly respect the Supreme Court of India and if we make false advertisements or propaganda, we would not have any objections if honourable court imposes a fine of crores or even give us a death sentence." On Tuesday, a bench comprising Justice Ahsanuddin Amanullah and Justice Prashant Kumar Mishra orally observed while hearing a plea of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), "All such false and misleading advertisements of Patanjali Ayurved have to stop immediately. The court will take any such infraction very seriously..." The top court, on August 23, 2022, had issued notices to the Union health ministry and Ministry of Ayush and Patanjali Ayurved Ltd, on the plea of the IMA alleging a smear campaign by Ramdev against the vaccination drive and modern medicines.

In its statement, Patanjali said, "We would like emphasise that we are not spreading any false propaganda. Hundreds of therapies of Yoga, Ayurveda, Naturopathy, Panchakarma, Shatkarma, fasting and with the integrated treatment of system, we have made thousands of people free from several diseases like BP, sugar, thyroid, asthma, arthritis, obesity, liver and kidney failure, and cancer." It further claimed, "We have the world's best research centre on ayurveda, Patanjali Research Foundation, for research on traditional treatment and sanatan knowledge tradition. Where hundreds of world renowned scientists are conducting research, and by following more than 3,000 research protocols, close to 500 research papers have been published in the world's highly reputed research journals." The company accused 'some stubborn and so-called frustrated doctors of the medical sector, who oppose Yoga, Ayurveda and Naturopathy' of have a problem.

While acknowledging that diseases can be controlled with synthetic medicines, it said 'but cannot be cured', this problem of allopathy is not a problem for Yoga-Ayurveda.

"In the medical field, we have seen many modern practitioners those who are committing medical crimes by installing fake pacemakers, stealing kidneys, taking unnecessary medicines and conducting tests indiscriminately as medical mafia/drug mafia, we have fought against them," the statement added.