ointment

The investment is meant in part to help the company respond to a surge in the number of medications that require more complicated logistics handling than traditional pills, cough syrups and topical ointments.

"This must start to be calmed down," Mr Ives wrote in a note, adding that it "put a fly in the ointment of the Trump regulatory framework going forward".

The source of all the trouble was a medication called betamethasone, which Baffert has steadfastly argued was administered in an ointment for a rash on Medina Spirit’s hindquarters.

"It's the season for skin infections and we don't have creams or ointments for bacterial infections, no medicines to treat scabies and head lice."

The family of a disabled teenager desperate to source a discontinued ointment said those selling it at inflated prices were "morally corrupt".