Dr. Shaun Hussain of Mattel Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles said that the studies showing Acthar to be better than far cheaper steroids used too low a dose of steroids.

At his hospital, he reported at a medical meeting this month, 18 of 30 babies were successfully treated with two weeks’ worth of a high-dose oral steroid. Only the 12 who did not respond were switched to Acthar, with five of them successfully treated.

Given that the steroids cost $200 for each baby, compared with about $125,000 for Acthar, the approach saved more than $2 million. “We have to look at the cost to the health care system,” Dr. Hussain said.

I feel weird saying it, but this guy, and others like him, are going to be the heroes of modern-day medicine for the next few decades. Doctors have their practice fairly well down, but the costs of the system are wildly unchecked and in need of improvement.

Yet Questcor is now arguing that its studies show that Acthar, despite the “highly purified” in its name, actually contains other substances from the pig pituitary glands that account for some of its effectiveness. The company does not intend to say what those other ingredients are, thus making it extremely hard for a generic company to copy Acthar.

This is legal? I thought pharmaceutical companies had to completely characterize and report all substances contained in their drug?