Who We Are

More than 40 years ago, leg pain prompted pharmacist
F. Gerard Fournet Jr. to create a pill to help himself and others. Fournet, owner of Fournet’s Pharmacy, began his career in pharmacy in 1952. He moved to Franklin, Louisiana in 1958 from New Orleans. He created Vascutin after a high school injury gave him trouble. When I was in high school, I got injured and the exercises they gave me to do during that time, in 1948, made the veins in my legs protrude for some reason,” he said.

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In college, he wrote a term paper that would later serve him well. “When the professor gave us a list of subjects to select our term paper from, I saw varicose veins. Right away, it got my attention,” he said. After writing the paper, Fournet went about his business, but the paper was on his mind again. “After I started working, my leg started hurting so much. I couldn’t wait to go home and put my feet up. Sometimes I wouldn’t eat dinner,” he said. “I thought to myself, what about that paper you did at the University of Mississippi in 1952? I still remembered it, went back and got the information, put the pill together and took it. Within two weeks, the pain was gone.”

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After seeing the effects of his creation, Fournet began recommending it to customers. “One young lady came in complaining about her legs. She said, ‘The doctor told me for the rest of my life I’ll have to wear support stockings." Fournet recommended the product and two weeks later, the woman came into the pharmacy to tell him she no longer had the pain and didn’t need the support stockings. “She was so happy she was crying” he said.

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The product began as a way to treat varicose veins, but its usage later expanded to other conditions. “In the old days, I just had the product for varicose veins. But when my wife went to nursing school, she could see that problems could be treated throughout the whole body. It wasn’t just varicose veins” Fournet said. Now, the product is recommended for varicose veins, poor circulation, diabetes, nose bleeds, hematomas and even hemorrhoids. Vascutin is an all-natural vitamin compound. “It’s forgotten about, because it’s a complex vitamin that is an integral part of the blood vessel. It’s what makes them expand and contract.”

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Fournet’s plan to sell the product to the mainstream came from a friend in Texas who was taking Vascutin. His friend was diagnosed with pan lobular emphysema, a condition where the blood vessels expand but can’t contract. After trying experimental medication, the friend was given a year to live by her doctors. Fournet gave her Vascutin to improve her health. Her results were a success. That was 17 years ago, and she is still alive. “She told me, ‘Jerry, this is too good to keep in Franklin. You’ve got to get it out to the world.’ I never thought about selling it out in the world. I just had it in my store’” he said.

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Fournet calls his product simple. “It’s so safe and so simple, anyone can take it before meals, after meals and they can take it with any and every medicine they take.” Fournet can share countless stories about how his products have touched the lives of customers and improved their quality of life. He said, “It’s all about the people. That’s what keeps me going. To me, the most important thing is not the medicine, not the money. It’s people. There is nothing more important than helping people.”