Doctor drops Channel 4 MMR legal action

Libel action taken against Channel 4 by a doctor who featured in an episode of the current affairs series Dispatcheshas been dropped.

Libel action taken against Channel 4 by a doctor who featured in an episode of the current affairs series Dispatcheshas been dropped.

Andrew Wakefield, a gastroenterologist, made headlines in 1998 when he raised health concerns over the safety of the MMR vaccine at a press conference and claimed he had carried out research which proved a link to the vaccine and autism in children.

He called for the combined vaccine to be replaces with single vaccines.

However, the Dispatchesprogramme, MMR: What They Didn't Tell You, which was aired in November 2004, referred to a Sunday Timesinvestigation which revealed Wakefield had failed to disclose his association with a group of families suing the MMR's vaccine makers.

The film also revealed how Wakefield knew of results from his own lab that contradicted his theory and claimed that nine months before Wakefield publicly questioned the safety of the MMR vaccine, the first of a string of patents for a rival to the MMR vaccine were filed, with Wakefield named as inventor.

Following the documentary, Wakefield took libel action following the programme and the case was due to be presented in court in later this year.

But Wakefield dropped the case last week, just a couple of weeks after a judge ordered confidential documents, including patient reports, should be made available to C4 ahead of the trial.

Wakefield's case has been funded throughout by the Medical Protection Society, which is now liable to meet all C4's costs as well as its own, estimated to be more than £500,000.

The Greater Medical Council is currently investigating Wakefield, and is due to hold a hearing later this year.

Dispatches editor Kevin Sutcliffe described Wakefield's decision to discontinue the libel proceedings as 'a complete vindication'.