The manufacturer of the beauty product Botox is suing US President Barack Obama’s two top health officials over their agencies’ refusal to allow it to vaunt the drug’s full medical applications to doctors.

Allergan has filed a ground-breaking case against Kathleen Sebelius, US Secretary of Health and Human Services, and Margaret Hamburg, Commissioner of the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), to challenge a long-standing ban on pharmaceutical companies discussing the use of their drugs for treating ailments not approved by regulators.