Louis-Charles Viossat
 Louis-Charles Viossat    (civil servant, Big pharma/Lobbyist) | ||||||||||
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| Born | March 22, 1964 | |||||||||
| Nationality | French | |||||||||
| Alma mater | École nationale d'administration, École alsacienne, lycée Louis-le-Grand, Institut d'études politiques de Paris | |||||||||
| Member of | Le Siècle | |||||||||
Revolving door Big Pharma lobbyist who was responsible for French Covid vaccine rollout. Replaced in January 2021 because he was perceived as too slow.
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Louis-Charles Viossat is a senior French civil servant and former diplomat. In November 2020 he was appointed leader of an interministerial task force in charge of supporting the logistics of distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine. He was dismissed from his post at the beginning of January 2021 and replaced by Laetitia Buffet following displeasure concerning the slowness of the vaccination implementation.
During his career, Viossat has been very active in lobbying for Big Pharma. In particular, he led the lobbying of the American company Abbott, which later became Abbvie, for almost 5 years. He has also lobbied for Eli Lilly.[1] He has also done stints in nominally independent initiatives funded by the pharma industry and their cutouts like the Gates Foundation.
He is a member of the influence club Le Siècle.
Early Life
Louis-Charles Viossat was born on March 22 , 1964. He studied inP aris, and after having started them at the prestigeous Alsatian School and the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, he completed them at Sciences Po, then at the ENA.[2][3]
When he left ENA in 1992, he was inspector of social affairs, then general inspector of social affairs. He became an civil servant in the office of the Minister of Labor and Social Affairs (IGAS), and technical advisor in the office of the Secretary of State for Health and Social Security, Hervé Gaymard, in charge of the organization of social security then the budget and administration.
Following the defeat of the right in the legislative elections of 1997, he joined the World Bank. He worked in Washington DC (United States) from 1998 to 2000. In August 2000, back at IGAS, he was co-responsible for an evaluation mission of “the implementation of youth assistance funds (FAJ)”, which produced its report in February 2001[4]. He joined the private sector as a lobbyist in September 2001, to become corporate affairs director of the US pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly France.
After the victory of the right in the legislative elections of 2002, he was back in government, under Jean-François Mattei[5] in the Ministry of Health from June 2002 To March 2004, where he worked during the disastrous management of the 2003 heat wave which killed 14.000 people in France.
He was then appointed Director General of the Central Agency for Social Security Organizations (Acoss)[6].
In 2005, he was appointed deputy chief of staff for social affairs in the office of Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin[7]. He is considered to be the designer of the First Employment Contract, a government initiative which allegedly was improve young people's access to a first job, where contracts were devised which would make firing and lay-off easier.
Viossat was French Ambassador in charge of the fight against AIDS and communicable diseases between April 2007 and April 2009, at the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs. In this capacity, he was a director of international health organizations such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (vice-president and then president of the finance and audit committee), UNITAID and the Roll Back Malaria partnership.
He joined Abbott, an American biopharmaceutical company, in May 2009. First a senior director of government affairs (i.e. lobbyist) for Western Europe and Canada and in Brussels (European Union)[8], he became, in January 2013, vice-president in charge of international government relations.
He has taught economics and then social and health issues at Sciences-Po and ENA.
He is currently president of the job development Center Inffo. He is a member of the important influence network Le Siècle[9].
References
- ↑ https://www.europereloaded.com/macrons-mr-vaccine-is-a-former-lobbyist-of-big-pharma/
- ↑ https://www.whoswho.fr/bio/louis-charles-viossat_49327
- ↑ https://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article_interactif/2005/08/31/la-garde-rapprochee-du-premier-ministre_684284_3224_4.html
- ↑ http://www.ladocumentationfrancaise.fr/var/storage/rapports-publics/014000712.pdf
- ↑ https://www.lesechos.fr/13/05/2002/LesEchos/18652-144-ECH_louis-charles-viossat.htm
- ↑ https://www.lesechos.fr/28/04/2004/LesEchos/19146-051-ECH_louis-charles-viossat.htm
- ↑ https://www.lesechos.fr/03/06/2005/LesEchos/19427-048-ECH_alain-quinet-louis-charles-viossat-henri-michel-comet.htm
- ↑ https://www.lesechos.fr/29/05/2009/LesEchos/20434-049-ECH_louis-charles-viossat.htm
- ↑ Emmanuel Ratier, Au Cœur du pouvoir, Facta, 2011
