AstraZeneca skids another 2% as confusion remains over vaccine

 

• AstraZeneca (AZN -2%) extends its decline that followed Monday's data from its COVID-19 vaccine trial as analysts continued to question the confusing results.
• Oxford and AstraZeneca said clinical trials showed their vaccine was 90% effective in people who received a half-dose followed by a full-dose booster, but the regime was administered to participants in a group that did not include anyone over age 55, Operation Warp Speed's Moncef Slaoui said yesterday.
• "I don't believe that the FDA will look positively at any trial where the dose, or the age cohorts, or any other variable were changed mid-trial, inadvertently or deliberately," says SVB Leerink analyst Geoffrey Porges, who predicts the U.S. Food and Drug administration will not clear the vaccine.
• There was no age breakdown given for the two groups from AstraZeneca when the company reported its results on Monday; Slaoui says the initial half-dose was used in some people because of an error in the quantity of vaccine put into some vials.
• "Approval based on current data means people [would] be inoculated with a vaccine the true efficacy of which is unknown," says Bloomberg Intelligence senior analyst Sam Fazeli, who believes another trial is needed to assess the Astra vaccine's efficacy and that the current data also raises concerns on Johnson & Johnson's (JNJ -0.2%) U.S. trial.
• https://seekingalpha.com/news/3639522-astrazeneca-skids-another-2-confusion-remains-over-vaccine