Pouch: "AstraZeneca Vaccine Efficacy Announcement Is Not Complete"

President Moon Jae-in is receiving the AstraZeneca (AZ) COVID-19 vaccine at the Jongno-gu Public Health Center in Seoul on the morning of the 23rd. [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy New York=Correspondent Baek Jong-min] Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), stated that the announcement by AstraZeneca (AZ) regarding the efficacy of its COVID-19 vaccine was incomplete.

On the 23rd (local time), in an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America," Dr. Fauci said about the AstraZeneca vaccine, "It seems very good," but also explained, "Looking at the company's clinical trial data, it is quite good, but the press release based on this data was not entirely accurate."

AstraZeneca announced a day earlier that its vaccine showed 79% efficacy in preventing COVID-19 in a Phase 3 clinical trial conducted in the United States.

Regarding this, Dr. Fauci added, "The U.S. Data and Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB), an independent body evaluating clinical trial results, reviewed AstraZeneca's press release and felt that the clinical data was somewhat outdated and could cause some misunderstanding."

He also emphasized that AstraZeneca must submit accurate data to the DSMB to confirm that the contents of the press release are correct.

On the 23rd, NIAID announced that the DSMB had notified them of "concerns regarding the initial clinical trial data released by AstraZeneca."

NIAID explained, "The DSMB was concerned that including outdated information prevents a full assessment of the vaccine's efficacy data."

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