2023-12-22 10:36:34
“As part of my role as pharmacist, an investigation is indeed underway. » This Friday morning on France Blue Normandy, the new Minister of Health Agnès Firmin Le Bodo, accused by Mediapart of having received gifts worth 20,000 euros from Urgo laboratories as a pharmacist without having declared them, confirms that she is the subject of ‘investigation. Without elaborating, she indicated that she reserved her “exchanges” on this subject with “the competent authorities” “for the following days”.
What are these gifts?
The minister, appointed interim after the resignation of Aurélien Rousseau in disagreement with the Immigration law, is a pharmacist by profession and runs a pharmacy in Le Havre (Seine-Maritime). She 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, which revealed the existence of the investigation. Agnès Firmin Le Bodo would appear “among the biggest beneficiaries”.
What does the survey say?
Thursday evening, the public prosecutor of Le Havre Bruno Dieudonné confirmed the opening of an investigation “on the charge of unauthorized perception by a health professional of advantages provided by a person producing or marketing health products, in the extension of the case which resulted in the conviction of Urgo laboratories in January 2023 by the Dijon criminal court”, but without giving the identities of the pharmacists concerned.
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 magistrate.
Urgo already sentenced
In January 2023, Urgo laboratories were fined 1,125,000 euros, including 625,000 suspended, for offering gifts to pharmacists, in return for giving up commercial discounts. According to Mediapart, “a second part of the affair” has begun, with justice looking into all the pharmacists who received gifts.
With its gift policy, “Urgo sought to build loyalty among pharmacists and increase their commercial margins,” says Mediapart.
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