Over the course of his career, he served as Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, Special Adviser on Innovative Financing for Development in the UN and chairman of UNITAID.

In addition to his committee assignments, he was a member of the parliament's delegation to the Joint Assembly of the Agreement between the African, Caribbean and Pacific States (ACP countries) and the European Economic Community.

Elected deputy for Hautes-Pyrénées département in March 1993, Douste-Blazy was appointed to the cabinet of Edouard Balladur as Minister-Delegate (a junior minister) at the Ministry for Health.

[1] During his time in office, France approved a bill which prohibited postmenopausal pregnancy, which Douste-Blazy said was "...immoral as well as dangerous to the health of mother and child."

In June, he was also re-elected Mayor of Lourdes then, five months later, elected general secretary of Democratic Force, the party which replaced the CDS .

In June 1997, the overwhelming defeat of the Presidential Majority during legislative election 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.

Indeed, while the latter advocated the emancipation of the UDF towards its Gaullist allies, Douste-Blazy proposed the union of the right-wing parties behind President Chirac.

Seeking one of the country's most important municipal seats,[2] Douste-Blazy narrowly won the election for Mayor of Toulouse in 2001, which saw the left making its best showing in decades.

Consequently, he participated to the unification of some right-wing groups in the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) and appeared as a possible prime minister.

In his capacity as minister, Douste-Blazy summoned Iran's ambassador to France in October 2005, demanding an explanation for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 's public call for Israel to be "wiped off the map.

[6] During his time in office, France played a central role in international attempts to end the bloodshed in the 2006 Lebanon War.

[7] In October 2006, the French National Assembly, despite Douste-Blazy's opposition,[8] passed a bill which if approved by the Senate and would make Armenian genocide denial a crime.

On 19 February 2008, Douste-Blazy was appointed by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as Special Adviser on Innovative Financing for Development, with the rank of UN Under-Secretary-General.

From 2008 until 2009, he was a member of the High Level Taskforce on Innovative International Financing for Health Systems, co-chaired by Gordon Brown and Robert Zoellick.

His main responsibilities as the Special Adviser included 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.