London ? Activists claimed to have sabotaged health care products in Britain and France in a long-running and often violent campaign against an animal-testing firm, police said Friday.

A British group called Animal Rights Militia said it had contaminated products made by the Swiss-based pharmaceuticals company Novartis AG because of its alleged links with Huntingdon Life Sciences, a company that tests medical products on animals.

Novartis said thousands of tubes of the popular Savlon brand antiseptic cream had been recalled from stores in Britain as a precaution, but it had not found any evidence of tampering.

In France, CIBA Vision, a branch of Novartis, said it had been warned of “a malicious act” causing damage to 85 bottles of the SOLO-Care Aqua solution between Aug. 25-27 and ordered a recall of the product from French stores.