A hepatologist in Kerala has accumulated 16 legal cases in six years, not for malpractice, but for publishing peer-reviewed research and publicly questioning the scientific basis of homoeopathy and traditional herbal remedies. Dr Cyriac Abby Philips, a liver specialist at Rajagiri Hospital in Kochi, has become one of India's most polarising medical figures. India's Ayush Ministry, the federal body overseeing traditional medicine, has held formal committee meetings solely to discuss him, according to BBC reporting.
Philips has authored more than 170 peer-reviewed publications, accumulating over 2,300 citations in major gastroenterology and hepatology journals. In at least two instances, that published research has since been retracted following legal pressure from manufacturers whose products his studies implicated in liver injury — with no scientific flaws cited as the reason for either withdrawal, according to specialist site Retraction Watch.
