J&J CFO Wolk: Vaccine Trial Pause Should Reassure Public

Johnson & Johnson's decision to pause its COVID-19 vaccine trial should have been "somewhat expected," but it also should reassure the public, Joseph Wolk, the company's executive vice president and chief financial officer, said Tuesday. 

"What it should do is reassure the public that every scientific and ethical standard is being applied here and across the industry, as we all search for a vaccine to combat COVID-19," Wolk said on CNBC's "Squawk Box." 

"Right now, we're waiting for the independent drug safety monitoring to do their analysis," Wolk said, adding that it's not yet known if the person who became ill had received a placebo or the company's vaccine itself. 

"Pauses are not uncommon," said Wolk. "If you think about the vaccine trial we're conducting, it is 60,000 individuals. That is a large study. It probably should be somewhat expected that we ultimately see a pause for an unexpected adverse event."

He explained that there is a difference between a pause, which is ordered by a company, and an order to hold back on testing, which is ordered by the government. 

"I would distinguish us from AstraZeneca at this point in that ours is a pause, theirs was a hold," said Wolk. "It's a very significant difference."

J&J has other vaccines based on the same technology being tested in its COVID-19 vaccination, Wolk confirmed, adding that the drug has been tested in 100,000 people in trials for diseases such as HIV and Ebola. 

"We know it's been well-tolerated," he said. "We're going to let the independent data, drug safety monitoring board look through this data, do their analysis, and advise us appropriately."

Meanwhile, the company is marking a solid fourth quarter and full year, said Wolk, while commending hospitals for knowing how to anticipate and treat COVID-19 patients now, and realizing they do not need to shut down anything over the pandemic.

"Even with the pause, we're planning for success, looking at the first quarter of next year is the timeline that we have put out there," said Wolk. "We are continuing to invest as if success will occur."

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