Autism pills were planned to be assessed in uncontrolled [no placebo] experiment

This page is research from an investigation by Brian Deer for the UK's Channel 4 Television and The Sunday Times of London into a campaign linking the MMR children's vaccine with autism. | Go to part I: The Lancet scandal | Go to part II: The Wakefield factor

One finding from Brian Deer's investigation was that Andrew Wakefield had filed patent claims for a vaccine and a possible cure for autism, based on a fringe theory of "transfer factors". His collaborator and "co-inventor" was Hugh Fudenberg. Even before a press conference, which launched the MMR scare in February 1998, Royal Free hospital doctors had sought approval to test an "autism treatment", based on Wakefield's and Fudenberg's theories. But there would be no placebo safeguard against either natural parental optimism, or misinterpretation of the varied development commonly seen in autistic children. The project was eventually abandoned

In July 2007, Dr Berelowitz told a panel of the UK General Medical Council, hearing disciplinary charges against Andrew Wakefield, John Walker-Smith and Simon Murch, that references to him with regard to this project were untrue. He said that he didn't agree to take part, that he didn't have any experience of therapeutic trials involving autistic children, and that he didn't believe an uncontrolled trial of any such purported therapy was appropriate.