Producers of Chinese herbal medicine, which has been widely used to treat COVID-19 patients and being distributed to Shanghai residents, are facing a heavy blow to its reputation after an influential health platform said on Sunday that the famous medicine cannot prevent people from infection with COVID-19.
Health platform Dingxiang Yisheng unveiled that COVID-19 cannot be prevented by the Chinese herbal medicine and advised the public not to take it as preventive medicine.
As soon as the reports went viral, the company's market prices and reputation were tormented. Chinese drug producer and supplier, Shijiazhuang Yiling Pharmaceutical produced Chinese herbal medicine Lianhua Qingwen accounted for over 40 per cent of the company's revenues, as per Global Times.
However, after the revelation by the health platform over its inefficiency to prevent COVID the market value of the company evaporated by 6.7 billion yuan (USD 1.05 billion) on Friday.
The report went viral and on multiple social media platforms. Right from the start of the COVID outbreak, medicine has seen a sharp increase in invisibility. Hong Kong and Shanghai also received boxes of these medicines from the company. With the large availability of the medicine around, many people got the impression that it could prevent infections.
Revenues of the firm increased by 50 per cent in 2020 and in March, the company ramped up production to provide the capsules to aid Hong Kong's battle against Omicron.
Some residents in Shanghai, which is under strict epidemic control management due to a severe resurgence of the virus and experienced difficulties with food supplies in some communities, also received boxes of the capsules.
The medicine could also cause side effects such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and rash. Fang Bangjiang, a doctor from Long Hua Hospital of the Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, said that Lianhua Qingwen has complex ingredients and is mainly suitable for COVID-19 patients with mild symptoms of fever and pneumonia but unsuitable for prevention. Its ingredients will affect the renal system.
In its defence, the company urged the consumers to remain rational. The company also clarified that they never made any public claims about the WHO recommendation of the drug, reported the media outlet.
( With inputs from ANI )
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor