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‘Racism Is Not a Known Side Effect.’ Company Behind Ambien Responds to Rosanne’s Claim She was ‘Ambien Tweeting’

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The pharmaceutical company behind Ambien is hitting back at Roseanne Barr for blaming a racist tweet on the prescription sedative.

In response to a now-deleted tweet in which Barr wrote that she had been “ambien tweeting” when she posted the racist tweet that led to her show Roseanne‘s cancellation, drugmaker Sanofi has shut down the 65-year-old actor’s apparent assertion that its sleeping pills were to blame.

“People of all races, religions and nationalities work at Sanofi every day to improve the lives of people around the world,” the company tweeted on Wednesday. “While all pharmaceutical treatments have side effects, racism is not a known side effect of any Sanofi medication.”

ABC cancelled its popular sitcom reboot Roseanne on Tuesday in the wake of a tweet in which after Barr stated that if “muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby,” it would be former White House adviser Valerie Jarrett, who is black and was born in Iran.

 

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Write to Megan McCluskey at megan.mccluskey@time.com