Astra Expects U.S. Trial Update Within Two Weeks, Analyst Says

(Bloomberg) -- AstraZeneca Plc told analysts it expects an update in the next one to two weeks on its halted U.S. trial evaluating the coronavirus vaccine under development with the University of Oxford and believes the study could resume this year, according to a note from Guggenheim Securities.

The drugmaker expects global approval will be determined by results in tests outside the U.S., Guggenheim analysts wrote, citing comments from Mene Pangalos, the head of biopharma research. The British company sees the U.S. trial as “more of a confirmatory” study, according to the report.

An AstraZeneca representative didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

The hold on the final-stage U.S. trial was disclosed in early September after a patient who got the vaccine came down with unexplained neurological symptoms. Trials of the vaccine have resumed since in the U.K., Brazil and South Africa, but the work remains paused in the U.S., raising questions over whether regulators there have lingering safety concerns.

A participant information sheet posted online by Oxford earlier this month said that illnesses seen in the studies were either considered unlikely to be related to the vaccine or there was insufficient evidence to say for sure.

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