Retracting its three-day-old order that asked Patanjali Ayurved to stop producing five drugs under scrutiny for violations of rules on advertisements for certain drugs, an Uttarakhand regulatory authority said that the order was a mistake.
A November 12 letter sent by the Uttarakhand Ayurveda and Unani Services Licensing Authority to Divya Pharmacy, Patanjali’s manufacturing unit, said the firm can continue producing the five drugs — BPgrit, Eyegrit, Lipidom, Madhugrit and Thyrogrit.
Earlier, the licensing authority had directed Divya Pharmacy through a letter released on November 9 to stop producing the five drugs, submit revised label claims and seek fresh approvals for each. It cited “repeated contraventions” of rules on drug advertisements.
Both documents — the November 9 letter ordering the ban and the November 12 letter revoking it — were signed by G.C.N. Jangpani, the licensing officer with the authority’s office in Dehradun.
Divya Pharmacy had on November 10 described the order as part of a “conspiracy” by an “anti-ayurveda mafia”.
The new letter does not detail reasons for retracting the ban order. But it emerged after Uttarakhand’s BJP government sent a notice to Jangpani asking him to explain his action, a state official said.
“Jangpani… has received the notice from the health department asking him to explain his action. Jangpani will reply soon,” a health department official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Patanjali, in a media release on Saturday, thanked the Uttarakhand government. “Taking cognisance of this thoughtless act of defaming ayurveda, the way the Uttarakhand government rectified the mistake, we are grateful to the government for taking cognisance of this mistake,” it said.
Ramdev, the yoga evangelist associated with Patanjali, is often seen in the company of senior BJP leaders. The company has described the licensing officer’s ban order as a “reprehensible act to defame Patanjali”, adding that a department whose task was to promote ayurveda as a national system of medicine is engaged in defaming and destroying ayurveda.
Jangpani’s November 9 letter had cited complaints by a Kerala-based doctor, K.V. Babu, who had alleged that Divya Pharmacy’s advertisements for the five products violate the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940, and the Magic Remedies Act, 1954. The acts prohibit advertisements that promote the prevention, treatment or cure of certain disorders, including blood pressure, glaucoma, goitre, diabetes, liver disorders and heart disease.
