The new Minister of Health, Agnès Firmin Le Bodo, focused by an investigation for presents acquired as a pharmacist, in accordance with “Mediapart” | EUROtoday

The interim begins delicately. According to MediapartAgnès Firmin Le Bodo, simply appointed head of the Ministry of Health, acquired as a pharmacist presents price an estimated 20,000 euros from Urgo laboratories. The minister, who rose in rank on Wednesday after the resignation of Aurélien Rousseau for disagreement on the immigration regulation, “is the subject of a judicial investigation opened in June 2023 for having received gifts, without declaring them”wrote, Thursday December 21, the web data website.

Thursday night, the general public prosecutor of Le Havre, Bruno Dieudonné, confirmed to Agence France-Presse (AFP) that an investigation has been opened “on the charge of “unauthorized perception by a health professional of advantages provided by a person producing or marketing health products”, as an extension of the case which resulted within the conviction of Urgo laboratories in January 2023 by the courtroom Dijon Correctional ».

“The secrecy of the investigation prohibits me from communicating further, in particular on the identity of the pharmacists targeted by this investigation. Over a period from the end of 2015 to the end of 2020, six of them received bonuses for a total amount greater than 12,000 euros”, added the Justice of the Peace. Asked by AFP, the minister’s entourage indicated that she would reply “only to the competent authorities”.

“Watches, bottles of wine and magnums of champagne…”

Pharmacist by occupation, M^me Firmin Le Bodo, who runs a pharmacy in Le Havre (Seine-Maritime), “is suspected of having had luxury products delivered on 21 occasions, from 2015 to 2020 – watches, bottles of wine and magnums of champagne, boxes for weekends, etc. – for a total amount estimated at 20,000 euros, from Urgo laboratories »according to Mediapart. “Urgo thus sought to retain pharmacists and increase their commercial margins”continues Mediapart.

In January 2023, Urgo laboratories had been fined 1,125,000 euros, together with 625,000 suspended, for providing presents to pharmacists, in return for giving up industrial reductions. These practices represent an infringement of the so-called regulation “anti-gifts” adopted in 1993.

According to Mediapart, “a second part of the affair” started, justice wanting into all of the pharmacists who acquired presents. In Normandy, the General Directorate for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Control (DGCCRF) is coping with round forty recordsdata. “The lightest cases (less than 1,000 euros of bonus) are classified. While the other files give rise to the opening of a preliminary investigation, in June 2023”explains the newspaper, in accordance with which M^me Firmin Le Bodo determine “among the biggest alleged beneficiaries”.