The sleeping pill Ambien is in the spotlight after being implicated in TV star Roseanne Barr’s racial attack on Barack Obama’s former adviser Valerie Jarrett.

In a since-deleted Twitter post, the actor blamed the slur on late-night “Ambien tweeting”. She also claimed that she had previously done “weird stuff” under the influence of the drug, like cracking eggs on a wall.

In response, the drug’s manufacturer Sanofi hit back : “While all pharmaceutical treatments have side effects, racism is not …