Kerala lists 29 misleading ads by Patanjali Ayurved, likely to initiate action

A day after the Supreme Court warned Patanjali Ayurved against making false and misleading claims in their advertisements about its products as “cures”, the Kerala Drugs Control Department has signaled its intention to prosecute Divya Pharmacy, the maker of Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali Ayurved products.

The Haridwar-based Divya Pharmacy is likely to face prosecution in various courts across the state if the department goes ahead with its plan.

The department, acting on a complaint by Kannur-based ophthalmologist Dr KV Babu, a health activist who has been tracking the illegal drug promotion by the company, has spotted 29 misleading advertisements of the Patanjali products from the 14 districts in the state. He received responses to queries on the matter filed under the Right to Information Act.

“The drug inspectors have been monitoring the activities of the illegal drug promotions. We will initiate steps for prosecution in courts where the offences have been identified,” said a department official. “We will write to the State Drug Licensing Authority in Uttarakhand demanding samples of drug constitution. The top court verdict is a shot in the arm for our activities,” the official added.

The advertisements for Patanjali products promoted drugs for heart ailment, blood pressure and liver disease in violation of the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisement) Act 1954, which bans advertisements for scheduled drugs for such diseases. The ads claimed ayurvedic medicines can “cure” high blood pressure and diabetes, among other illnesses.

The violation of section 3 of the DMR Act attracts imprisonment which may extend to one year, or fine, or both. A repeat offence shall be punished with imprisonment for a term which may extend to five years and with a fine which may extend to Rs 50 lakh.

Patanjali Ayurved has denied releasing any misleading advertisements, its latest assertion made a day after the Supreme Court on Tuesday warned the company that a fine of Rs 1 crore would be imposed for every misleading advertisement promising permanent cure through its products.

However, the counsel for Patanjali Ayurved assured in court that they would not publish such advertisements in the future, and ensured that casual statements would not be made to the press. The undertaking was recorded by the Court in its order.

The bench observed during the hearing that it did not wish to make the issue an "Allopathy v. Ayurveda" debate but wanted to find a real solution to the problem of misleading medical advertisements.

The actions on the advertisements initiated by the Kerala Drugs Control Department this month precede the Supreme Court’s observations on Wednesday and come amid long-standing concerns among modern medicine practitioners about the impact of misleading advertisements on patients.

In early 2022, Babu had alerted the Union Ayush (ayurveda, yoga, unani, siddha and homeopathy) ministry about what he alleged were advertisements that violated the DMR Act by claiming cures for several health disorders covered in the DMR Act. The Ayush ministry, citing Babu’s complaint, had in April 2022 written to the Uttarakhand state authorities to “take necessary action”.

Babu reportedly said that it had been 18 months since his complaint and neither the Ayush ministry nor the Uttarakhand authorities had done anything to stop the misleading ads. This was why he had sent a fresh complaint to the Kerala drug department.

The Ayush ministry itself had told Parliament in March 2022 that its pharmacovigilance centres had reported 18,812 “objectionable advertisements” between 2018 and 2021, while the Advertising Standards Council of India had reported 1,229 misleading advertisements during 2017-2019.

The SC warning to Patanjali Ayurved was based on the writ petition filed by the IMA raised concerns about what they term as a "continuous, systematic, and unabated spread of misinformation" regarding evidence-based medicine and the modern system of medicine. The petition pointed out that Patanjali's misleading advertisements disparage modern medicine and make false claims about curing certain diseases.

The plea referred to a half-page advertisement published on July 10, 2022, titled “Misconceptions spread by allopathy: save yourself and the country from the misconceptions spread by pharma and medical industry”.