20th-century French physicians

Ernest Henri Besnier (French: [benje]; 21 April 1831 – 15 May 1909, Paris) was a French dermatologist and medical director of the Hôpital Saint-Louis in Paris.

Paul-Félix Armand-Delille (3 July 1874 – 4 September 1963) was a French physician, bacteriologist, professor, and member of the French Academy of Medicine. He is best known for attempting to protect his crop from rabbits by releasing a pair of rabbits infected with Myxoma virus on to his farm in northern France. The spread of the vira lead to a plague of myxomatosis that caused the collapse of rabbit populations throughout much of Europe and beyond in the 1950s.

Samuel Jean Pozzi (3 October 1846 – 13 June 1918) was a French surgeon and gynecologist. He was also interested in anthropology and neurology. He is remembered today for John Singer Sargent's portrait of him.
After studying medicine in Paris, Pozzi volunteered as a medic during the Franco-Prussian War. He later specialized in gynecological and abdominal surgery, establishing the first Chair of Gynecology in Paris in 1884, and performing the first gastroenterostomy in France. Pozzi was elected to the French Academy of Medicine in 1896, and co-founded the Revue de gynécologie et de chirurgie abdominale in 1897.
His personal life was marked by a tumultuous marriage, multiple affairs, and cultural interests, including friendships with notable figures such as Sarah Bernhardt and Marcel Proust. In the political arena, Pozzi served as a senator for his hometown, Bergerac, and supported the controversial Alfred Dreyfus during his trial. He died in 1918, when a disgruntled patient fatally shot him.

Pierre Deniker (16 February 1917, in Paris – 17 August 1998) was involved, jointly with Jean Delay and J. M. Harl, in the introduction of chlorpromazine (Thorazine), the first antipsychotic used in the treatment of schizophrenia, in the 1950s. Thorazine had been used in surgical procedures peri-operatively as an anti-nausea medication in France. Patients were noted to be less anxious and calmer. This observation eventually led Deniker to try chlorpromazine with patients who had schizophrenia, where he observed notable improvement in symptoms.
The pharmaceutical company Smith-Kline had purchased the chlorpromazine rights from Rhone-Poulenc in France and had been marketing it as an anti-nausea medication. After Deniker's observations, they sought and received FDA approval in 1954 to market Thorazine for the treatment of schizophrenia.

Jean-Louis Touraine (born 8 October 1945) is a French politician and professor of medicine who served as a member of the National Assembly for Rhône's 3rd constituency from 2007 to 2022. He is a member of La République En Marche (LREM).

Bernard Ménétrel (22 June 1906 – 31 March 1947) was a French physician and political advisor to Marshal Philippe Pétain during World War II. He met with Helmut Knochen and tried to negotiate with Charles de Gaulle on Pétain's behalf.

Angelo Louis Marie Hesnard (or Angel Marie Louis Hesnard; 22 May 1886, Pontivy – 17 April 1969, Rochefort) was a French born psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, and was an important figure in 1930s French sexology.

Renaud Muselier (born 6 May 1959) is a French physician and politician who has served as President of the Regional Council of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur since 2017. A former member of The Republicans (LR), he previously was a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 2014 to 2019.

Jacqueline Fraysse-Cazalis (born 25 February 1947, in Paris) is a French cardiologist and politician. A member of the French Communist Party, she served in the National Assembly of France, from 1978 to 1986, as a Senator from 1986 to 1997, and in the National Assembly again from 1997 to 2017, as a member of the French Communist Party, in the Gauche démocrate et républicaine parliamentary group.Fraysse has also served in various capacities for the town of Nanterre, whose mayor she was from 1988 until 2004.In her capacity as mayor, Fraysse was overseeing a meeting of the Nanterre municipal council on 26 March 2002 when Richard Durn opened fire on the group, killing eight and wounding nineteen.

Alain Bombard (French pronunciation: [alɛ̃ bɔ̃baʁ]; Paris, 27 October 1924 – Paris, 19 July 2005) was a French biologist, physician and politician famous for sailing in a small boat across the Atlantic Ocean without provision. He theorized that a human being could very well survive the trip across the ocean without provisions and decided to test his theory himself in order to save thousands of lives of people lost at sea.He was a Member of the European Parliament from the Socialist Party for France from 1981 to 1994.