The Ministry of AYUSH has received 154 misleading advertisements. It is related to AYUSH claims for COVID-19 from different parts of the country till August 2020. In this regard, the Ministry of AYUSH has issued directives to the State and Union Territories (UT) authorities. The states and UTs will have to initiate necessary action against the defaulters and alleged manufacturers or advertisers. These advertisers have been acting in violation of the provisions of the Drugs and Cosmetics Act, 1940 and Rules. They are also violating the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954.
The Ministry of AYUSH has also issued public advisories and guidelines for the practitioners about the use of Ayush remedies to meet the challenge of COVID-19.
A number of medicinal products for immunity and health promotion have come into the market. During the COVID-19 outbreak, the Ministry of AYUSH issued public advisories of Ayush based healthcare. The Ministry circulated a generic formulation called Ayush Kwath/ Ayush Kudineer/ Ayush Joshanda. It comprises of Tulsi leaves, Dalchini stem barks, Sunthi and Krishna Marich.
The State Licensing Authorities have been granting license or approval for commercial manufacturing of such formulations. The granting is under the provisions of Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945 as applicable to Ayurvedic, Siddha, and Unani (ASU) drugs.
There have been no instances of adverse effects due to the consumption of the immunity-boosting drugs in States and Union Territories. However, the incidences of COVID-19 related exaggerated claims and misleading advertisements of ASU drugs have come to the surface. These instances have been reported by Pharmacovigilance centers. These reports have been forwarded to the concerned State Licensing Authorities, Drugs Controller and individual advertisers, manufacturers for corrective action.
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