Top Medicare prescribers for Acthar have ties to its maker

Many of Medicare’s top prescribers of the expensive specialty drug H.P. Acthar Gel have financial ties to the drug’s maker. Only 18 practitioners wrote 15 or more prescriptions for the drug in 2012. At least nine—and all of the top four—were promotional speakers, researchers or consultants for Questcor Pharmaceuticals, a ProPublica analysis shows.