AstraZeneca expects update on halted U.S. vaccine trial in next few weeks: brokerage

(Reuters) - AstraZeneca Plc <AZN.L> expects to have an update on its stalled U.S. COVID-19 vaccine trial in the next one to two weeks, analysts at Guggenheim Securities said on Wednesday, citing the head of the British drugmaker's biopharma research.

Mene Pangalos, the AstraZeneca executive, said the U.S. trial is more of a confirmatory trial, according to a client note.

The trial will not have much bearing to the vaccine candidate's global approval chances since that will be determined by the other trials currently in the UK, Brazil, South Africa, Japan and India, the Guggenheim note said.

Enrollment in the global trials of the vaccine, which AstraZeneca is developing with researchers at Oxford University, was paused last month, after a participant in its UK trial had a serious side effect.

The UK trial has resumed since, as have the company's trials in other countries.

AstraZeneca did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

(Reporting by Manojna Maddipatla in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)