Ann: COVID ARDS Trial Topline 60-Day Results, page-540

They stated very clearly that it was halted because they were unlikely to meet the primary endpoint (30 day mortality) at the target of a 43 percent mortality reduction. Maybe by the 3rd interim, they were already noticing reduced mortality at 60 days but not 30, and recommended the trial be stopped so those good results could be released sooner - so the product could be made available to the public sooner. The goal of NIH wasn't pure science, or MSB commercial interests, it was to find treatments urgently needed for the pandemic. DSMB may have been instructed to recommend a halt in this type of scenario, even if it wasn't the pre-specified "overwhelming efficacy" everyone had been hoping for.