As per the directions from the Drug Policy Section, Ministry of AYUSH, Government of India, the story titled “COVID-19- Pankaja Kasthuri’s Ayurveda Formulation Gets Nod for Clinical Trials” published on April 29, 2020 has been taken out from  APN News.Com.

The direction from the ministry is quoted below

“Above-mentioned news item circulated in the social media has been brought to the notice of this Ministry and it is observed that as per the notification of Ministry,  registration in  Clinical Trials Registry -India (CTRI) is one of the pre-requisites for conducting clinical study on any AYUSH intervention for Covid-19 cases.  Whereas CTRI  is a free online public record system for registration of clinical trials being conducted in India and a database of clinical trials linked with the WHO database but not a mechanism for granting regulatory permission or approval on behalf of Government.

It is checked from the CTRI portal hosted in the website of National Institute of Medical statistics of ICMR  that the clinical trial mentioned in the above news item is registered in CTRI since 28th April, 2020 but the details given there are faulty and misleading in terms of granting permission or approval for the said clinical trial on Covid -19 cases with a proprietary Ayurvedic product. The clearance for conducting the clinical trial is in fact is granted by the Institutional Ethics Committee (IEC).  The aforesaid statement made in the news item and in social media is in contravention of the Government directive dated 01st April, 2020 (copy enclosed) intended for control of the dissemination of misleading information about AYUSH drugs and services amid COVID-19 outbreak and to prevent glorifying the effects of the AYUSH drugs in COVID-19 conditions.

Accordingly,  it is directed to withdraw the news and hold disseminating the misleading  information in social media with immediate effect, otherwise legal action can be initiated against the manufacturing company.”