Scandal of job deal for CDC official

Documents passed to Brian Deer during his 1999 Sunday Times investigation of the so-called “world’s first Aids vaccine” involving California company, VaxGen Inc, resulted in federal prosection of Dr William Heyward, who as HIV vaccine chief at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention cheer-led for VaxGen’s AidsVax technology and arranged $8m in federal grants for its controversial product whilst secretly planning to join the company.

Below are pages from a VaxGen memo, dated March 22 1999, supplied by Brian Deer to federal investigators.

Below is a VaxGen management chart dating to March 1999, showing how Heyward was to fit in when he left government employment the following December.

On February 24 2003, it was announced that a US phase III trial had failed to show efficacy for AidsVax.