As reported in the Sunday Times (UK):

Andrew Wakefield the former surgeon whose campaign linking the MMR vaccine with autism caused a collapse in immunisation rates, was paid more than �400,000 by lawyers trying to prove that the vaccine was unsafe.

The payments, unearthed by The Sunday Times, were part of �3.4m distributed from the legal aid fund to doctors and scientists who had been recruited to support a now failed lawsuit against vaccine manufacturers.

Critics this weekend voiced amazement at the sums, which they said created a clear conflict of interest and were the �financial engine� behind a worldwide alarm over the triple measles, mumps and rubella shot.

�These figures are astonishing,� said Dr Evan Harris, Liberal Democrat MP for Oxford West and Abingdon.

�This lawsuit was an industry, and an industry peddling what turned out to be a myth.�