NJ Pharma Company Tells Roseanne: Racism No Side Effect Of Ambien

A New Jersey-based pharmaceutical company that makes Ambien had a sarcastic response Wednesday to comedian Roseanne Barr's claim that her racist tweet was a result of "Ambien tweeting."

Sanofi, the Bridgewater-based maker of Ambien, tweeted Wednesday that "racism is not a known side effect" of Ambien usage.

"People of all races, religions and nationalities work at Sanofi every day to improve the lives of people around the world," Sanofi said in a statement. "While all pharmaceutical treatments have side effects, racism is not a known side effect of any Sanofi medication."

Because of her tweet Tuesday, ABC canceled the reboot of the hit show "Roseanne," and said her statement was "abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values."

In the tweet, Barr compared former Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett to an ape. The tweet has since been deleted.

Sanofi is a long-time New Jersey company with about 3,000 employees in the state after transferring its research and development operations to Massachusetts several years ago.

Barr said on Tuesday that she would be leaving Twitter but she has stayed on the social media platform. On Wednesday, she went on a Twitter spree, retweeting memes and tweets that defended her.

Later on Wednesday, Barr retweeted President Donald Trump who said Disney CEO Bob Iger never called him to apologize for the "HORRIBLE statements" made about him on ABC.

She even responded to her co-stars Sara Gilbert and Michael Fishman.

"Wow! Unreal." read her tweet in response to Gilbert, who said Barr's tweet about Jarrett was abhorrent and did not reflect the beliefs of the cast and crew.

Barr claimed she "created the platform for that inclusivity and you know it.ME . You throw me under the bus. nice!" she responded to Fishman, who issued a lengthy statement condemning Barr's words and said the cast, crew, writers and production staff strived for inclusiveness on the show.

She also claimed she didn't know that Jarrett was African-American. Barr issued a second apology to Jarrett late Tuesday.

Barr has deleted her statements blaming Ambien for the racist tweet. According to CNN Money, Barr made two references to Ambien.

Per CNN, one of her tweets said, "guys I did something unforgiveable so do not defend me. It was 2 in the morning and I was ambien tweeting -- it was memorial day too -- i went 2 far & do not want it defended -- it was egregious Indefensible. I made a mistake I wish I hadn't but...don't defend it please." A second tweet said, "Not giving excuses for what I did(tweeted) but I've done weird stuff while on ambien -- cracked eggs on the wall at 2am etc."

While she deleted those tweets, she took the time to respond to people who called her out for blaming her tweets on Ambien.

"no, i didnt i blamed myself. stop lying. Yes, I have had odd ambien experiences on tweeting late at night-like many other ppl do. I BLAME MYSELF OK? it's just an explanation not an excuse, Ok, bully?" she tweeted in response to David Pakman.

"i blamed myself. not ambien, stop lying" read another tweet.

Ambien was the top trending topic on Twitter Wednesday. Many people called out Barr's claim that Ambien could make someone say racist things.

Meanwhile, reruns of the show scheduled to air on Viacom networks have been canceled, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Hulu is also pulling the show and The Laff broadcast network is dropping reruns of the original series, per THR.

Reported by Feroze Dhanoa and Tom Davis

Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images