More news on Vaccine trial pause after I get off the air with CNBC Asia.

Follow if interested.

Important background below. https://twitter.com/aslavitt/status/1303706627611258880

The CEO of @AstraZeneca held a PRIVATE conference call with investors to discuss the situation.

While not the MOST important thing, this is bad. They have to do better.

First depending on what was said, in a sensitive matter like this; it passes selective information to allow people to profit from. That’s a no-no.

More importantly, everything about these trials should be conducted in a way that is clear as day to maximize trust in the process.

In fact this is the second time the trial was halted. The first time was in July and while I heard about it earlier this week, I don’t remember this being disclosed.

Every adverse event is not necessarily a problem. And if it is it’s not necessarily a big problem. In July there was a neurological problem they determined was unrelated.

Here there is a spinal problem that appears to be minor. The woman will be released from the hospital.

Unclear if it’s related to the vaccine or independent. It is confirmed that the woman was taking the vaccine and not a placebo.

Even if it turns out to be related, it may be minor enough or rare enough to continue with the trial.

However many trials— more than half— don’t make it through Phase 3.

There are other leading candidates— Pfizer and Moderna to name 2.

I will attach an article from @statnews below that covers some of the same details and some other things.

https://www.statnews.com/2020/09/09/astrazeneca-covid19-vaccine-trial-hold-patient-report/