Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], February 23 (ANI): The sale of 'Coronil', Patanjali's Covid-19 medicine will not be allowed in Maharashtra without proper certification, state Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said on Tuesday.

Without taking names, Deshmukh also hit out at Union ministers Dr Harsh Vardhan and Nitin Gadkari for hurriedly launching the product and called it 'deplorable'.

"Launching such a drug hurriedly and being endorsed by two senior Central Union Ministers is highly deplorable," Deshmukh tweeted.

Selling of Coronil without proper certification from competent health organizations like WHO, IMA and others will not be allowed in Maharashtra, he said.

"The IMA (Indian Medical Association) has questioned the said 'clinical trials' of Coronil and WHO refuted the false claims made by Patanjali Ayurveda for giving any certificate regarding its effectiveness for Covid-19 treatment," the state home minister tweeted.

On Monday, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) had demanded an explanation from the Union Health Minister for promoting Patanjali's 'medicine'.

"Being a Health Minister of the country, how justified is it to release such falsely fabricated unscientific product to people of the whole country and how ethical is it to promote the product in unethical, wrong and false ways?" asked Dr Jayalal, IMA national president.

Coronil was licensed as an "immunity booster" in June last year after a controversy erupted after its launch.

"When we launched Coronil, people raised questions on its validity and asked if we followed scientific parameters. People think research can only happen in foreign countries. With this research, we have cleared all suspicions about Coronil," said Ramdev while speaking at the launch of the product on Friday.

The Yoga Guru had also made claims that the medicine had received clearance from the World Health Organization (WHO) and they were now ready to supply the drug across the country.

The World Health Organization (WHO), however, clarified in a tweet that it has not reviewed or certified the efficacy of Patanjali's Covid-19. The WHO's regional office for South-East Asia posted on its official Twitter handle said, "@WHO has not reviewed or certified the effectiveness of any traditional medicine for the treatment Covidl9." (ANI)