From Medscape Medical News > Neurology

Investigator Planned to Make Vast Profit From Autism/MMR Vaccine Scare, BMJ Says

Deborah Brauser

January 13, 2011 — Andrew Wakefield, the lead author on the 1998 study that reported a link between the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine and a new condition of regressive autism and bowel disease called autistic enterocolitis (AE), was planning to market a prestudy diagnostic testing kit with expected yearly sales of 28 million pounds (43 million US dollars), a new paper published online January 11 in the BMJ reports.

In the second of a series of 3 investigative articles examining the MMR vaccine scare, UK journalist Brian Deer reports that Mr. Wakefield planned several businesses to develop not only the new test but also immunotherapeutics and a "safer single measles shot" — which he held a patent for. Mr. Deer writes that these would only be successful if public confidence in the MMR vaccine was damaged.

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