Philippe Douste-Blazy during Nicolas Sarkozy's meeting in Toulouse in April 2007

Philippe Douste-Blazy (born on 1 January 1953) was the Foreign Minister of France in the cabinet of Dominique de Villepin.

Douste-Blazy is also a cardiologist and Christian Democrat politician from Lourdes. Formerly from the UDF party, he joined the Union for a Popular Movement. His principal former elected positions were mayor of Lourdes and mayor of Toulouse.

He studied medicine in Toulouse, where he had his first job in 1976. He then worked as a cardiologist in Lourdes and Toulouse, namely in Purpan's hospital from 1986. He then joined the French Society of Cardiology. He became Professor of Medicine in Toulouse Sciences University in 1988.

He entered politics in March 1989, being elected mayor of Lourdes and then Member of the European Parliament in June of the same year. He was then a member of the European People's Party. This year was also the one of his election as national director of the association of research against elevations of cholesterol.

At the end of 1993, he was made Minister-Delegate (a junior minister) at the Ministry for Health, after being elected Deputy in April. He stayed at this ministry until the 1995 presidential election. In March 1994, he was elected at Hautes-Pyrénées's General Council. He became general secretary of Democratic and Social Centre in December.

In January 1995, after the election of Jacques Chirac as President of the French Republic, a candidature he was backing, he was back as Minister of Health and Government's spokesman. Five months later, he became Minister of Culture. In June, he was also elected Mayor of Lourdes. By the end of November, he was elected general secretary of Democratic Force.

In June 1997, the overwhelming defeat of Conservatives during general elections made him lose his position as Minister of Culture, but he remained deputy of Hautes-Pyrénées and became president of the UDF parliamentary group at the French National Assembly. During the election campaign he was badly hurt when a mentally unstable man stabbed him in the back as he was campaigning in Lourdes. It turned out that the Minister's assailant was an Albanian refugee who had already tried to attack Mr Douste-Blazy in 1992.

He was elected Mayor of Toulouse in 2001, to resign in 2004 to become Minister of Health.

Douste-Blazy announced his support for the Israeli separation barrier on 25 October 2006.¹

On 19 February 2008, Philippe Douste-Blazy was appointed as by the United Nations Secretary-General as Special Adviser on Innovative Financing for Development, with the rank of UN Under-Secretary-General, following his experience as chairman of the Executive Board of UNITAID, the International Drug Purchase Facility hosted by the World Health Organization.

His main responsibilities as the Special Adviser include promoting UNITAID and other sources of innovative financing for the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals(MDGs), advising the United Nations Secretary-General on innovative financing solutions to the implementation of the Monterrey consensus, coordinating with the High-Level Group on the MDGs, and liaising with various UN and non-UN related institutions, such as the main Bretton Woods institutions, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development-Development Assistance Committee(OECD-DAC), the United Nations Development Group and the Millennium Communication Campaign.

Douste-Blazy is also in charge of organizing the first World Conference of Non-Governmental Donors, with a special focus on the financing for development provided by citizens, local and regional authorities, foundations, non-governmental organizations, economic and social representatives, faith groups and the private sector. It is hoped that these innovative sources of funding could compensate the insufficient official development assistance in achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

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