Agree with you, I believe that it's about the ards 60%...

Agree with you, I believe that it's about the ards 60% results.

However, I do speculate that Novartis has a business plan here, and has been very well prepared.
To start with, they have have probably had access to a huge amount of information under NDA to conduct Due Diligence on MSB's entire business portfolio, which includes intellectual property, possibly unblinded clinical trial results as well.
The MSB discussion at the recent conference calls about possible other partnership's and MSB's refusal to give up manufacturing would make Novartis even more eager to make a outright bid at the earliest opportunity. They probably have a plan, and the trigger could be the 60% interim analysis for the Covid ARDS trial. Remember this is BIOTECH. Big Pharma is often very well prepared and make bids at lightening speed. Often smaller Biotech prey are surprised, however the timing is crucial for Novartis. No better time than to move right now in my opinion, possibly with a 60% ARDS DSMB recommendation in the bag.

This is PURE SPECULATION, however if the DSMB recommends stopping the trial for OE, I think it's only a matter of time before Novartis makes an outright bid for the co (except I think they wouldn't wait and it would be an almost immediate offer and pre-prepared).

On another note, the board of MSB has to be concerned about SI working hours. I once worked for a company where the CEO was working extreme hours and I know the owners were very concerned. I have followed many Biotech's and I have never observed someone work as hard as SI. He is worthy of a Nobel prize in my opinion.