(Bloomberg) --
The Indian government has ordered Patanjali Ayurved Ltd., the traditional medicine company controlled by celebrity yoga guru Baba Ramdev, to stop claiming a new product can cure Covid-19 as the country battles a burgeoning epidemic.
The government has asked Patanjali to submit details about the product and the studies backing up its claims for it, and to stop making them in the meantime, according to a press release. Earlier in the day in a press conference and a media blitz, Ramdev touted a “Corona Kit” of three herbal medicines, which the company claimed was “evidence based ayurvedic medicine for Covid-19,” the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.
Cases of the disease are growing in India, which now has the fourth-highest number of infections in the world, and are putting increasing strain on its already fragile healthcare system. Ramdev has used his celebrity as a television yoga instructor to grow Patanjali into one of India's largest consumer goods companies with claims that its products, from floor cleaner to tooth paste, are based on the country's ancient system of medicine, ayurveda.
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