It has been an eventful week. On Wednesday, December 20, Agnès Firmin Le Bodo, the junior minister in charge of health professions, was named interim health minister after Aurélien Rousseau resigned to oppose France's new immigration law. The next day, Mediapart revealed she was under preliminary investigation for receiving undeclared gifts from a pharmaceutical laboratory when she was a pharmacist.
Speaking to news agency Agence France-Presse, the prosecutor Bruno Dieudonné confirmed on Thursday evening that an investigation had been opened for "unauthorized collection by a health professional of benefits procured by a person producing or marketing health products." He said it was related to the case that led to the conviction of Urgo Laboratories in January 2023 for giving gifts to pharmacists. "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 extending from the end of 2015 to the end of 2020, six of them received gratuities totaling more than €12,000," Dieudonné added.
Speaking to France Bleu Normandie on Friday morning, December 22, the minister confirmed that "an investigation is under way" concerning her "role as a pharmacist". "I would like to reserve the right to discuss [this matter] with the relevant authorities over the coming days," she added. Contacted by Le Monde, she had not replied at the time of publication.
According to Mediapart, Firmin Le Bodo, who ran a pharmacy in Le Havre, "is suspected of having luxury goods – watches, bottles of wine and magnums of champagne, weekend gift boxes – delivered to her on 21 occasions, from 2015 to 2020, for a total estimated amount of €20,000 euros, from Urgo Laboratories."
During that period, she was a pharmacist, but also first vice-president of the Seine-Maritime departmental council, between April 2015 and July 2017, and then a member of parliament, between June 2017 and August 2022 (for the right-wing Les Républicains, then center-right Horizons). She had a dual obligation to declare the gifts, both as a pharmacist, because all gifts and remuneration must be declared to the professional orders, and as an MP, because all gifts worth more than €150 must be declared to the Assemblée Nationale.
This judicial inquiry follows an earlier investigation into Urgo Laboratories, accused of offering gifts to pharmacists in return for waiving discounts. In January, the company agreed to pay a fine of €1.125 million, of which €625,000 was suspended, as part of a plea bargaining procedure to bring the investigation to a close.