Dr Cyriac Abby Philips, a doctor and expert on the harms caused by alternative medicine in India, has today been named the 2025 recipient of the Ockham Award for Skeptical Activism by The Skeptic magazine.
Dr Philips, a clinician-scientist in Hepatology at Rajagiri Hospital, Kochi, Kerala, has spent over a decade highlighting the dangers of homeopathy, herbal remedies, and superstition in India, sharing his expertise with more than 430,000 followers across X, Instagram and YouTube.
His work in countering health misinformation has been featured across the national and international media – resulting in campaigns of harassment and litigation by supporters of India’s powerful herbal and homeopathic industries. In 2019, he published a paper documenting the death of a patient from acute liver failure due to heavy metals and toxic compounds in their dietary supplement – however, after legal threats from the supplement’s manufacturer, Herbalife, the paper was retracted by its publishing journal. The study was reinstated following pressure from Retraction Watch, and Dutch microbiologist and previous Ockham award winner Elisabeth Bik.
In February 2022, Dr Philips was accused of professional misconduct by the Kerala State Medical Council, over an interview in which he described Ayurvedic medicine as ‘pseudoscience’. The medical council served Dr Philips notice after India’s powerful Union Ministry of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy) claimed his comments amounted to defamation, and that by denigrating ayurveda he was causing a split in public opinion. Eight months later, the charges were dropped. More recently, in 2024 Dr Philips faced further defamation threats from another multinational Ayurveda company, resulting in the journal Frontiers in Pharmacology withdrawing Dr Philips’ paper on the company’s products.
On the decision to give Dr Philips the 2025 Ockham award, Michael Marshall, editor of The Skeptic, said: “One of the most important roles of science communicators is to protect the public from dangerous health misinformation. That task becomes all the more crucial when that misinformation isn’t just about wasting money and giving false hope, but where there is risk of serious and irreparable harm to the patient. Dr Philips has continued that work, even as alternative medicine companies with deep pockets and powerful political connections have tried to silence him.
“For continuing to stand up for science and for the best interests of patients, undeterred by a barrage of legal threats and intimidation, Dr Cyriac Abby Philips is a very worthy recipient of the 2025 Ockham Award for Skeptical Activism”.
The ‘Skeptical Activism’ award was announced as part of The Skeptic’s annual Ockham Awards at a ceremony that took place during Saturday’s QED conference on science and skepticism in Manchester. Also awarded during the event was the 2025 Rusty Razor award for pseudoscience, which went to Nigel Farage’s political party, Reform UK.
