[2] Prior to 1973, Abbott Laboratories produced sodium cyclamate (Sucaryl) by a mixture of ingredients including the addition of pure sodium (flakes or rods suspended in solvent) with cyclohexylamine, chilled and filtered through a high speed centrifugal separator, dried, granulated and micro-pulverised for powder or tablet usage.

[3][4] The patent for cyclamate was purchased by DuPont and later sold to Abbott Laboratories, which undertook the necessary studies and submitted a New Drug Application in 1950.

[citation needed] In 1966, a study reported that some intestinal bacteria could desulfonate cyclamate to produce cyclohexylamine, a compound suspected to have some chronic toxicity in animals.

Further research resulted in a 1969 study that found the common 10:1 cyclamate–saccharin mixture increased the incidence of bladder cancer in rats.

The released study was showing that eight out of 240 rats fed a mixture of saccharin and cyclamates, at levels equivalent to humans ingesting 550 cans of diet soda per day, developed bladder tumors.

In October 1969, Department of Health, Education & Welfare Secretary Robert Finch, bypassing Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Herbert L. Ley, Jr., removed the GRAS designation from cyclamate and banned its use in general-purpose foods, though it remained available for restricted use in dietary products with additional labeling; in October 1970, the FDA, under a new commissioner, banned cyclamate completely from all food and drug products in the United States.

[7] Abbott Labs, together with the Calorie Control Council (a political lobby representing the diet foods industry), filed a second petition in 1982.