Missling stated it in an oral presentation. He said they wanted to spend as little resources as possible and designed the study to show failure as early as possible and it didn't fail. Almost verbatim. I do not remember which conference it was, so I cannot provide a link.
Stated in September. I listened to it again just so I can assure you that it came from the horse's mouth. This was from the Ladenburg Thalmann 2016 Healthcare Conference.
You many need to register to listen but you can make up whatever credentials you want.
His intent on designing a trial to fail fast begins at the 12:30 mark. I encourage all who are new to listen to this presentation and then listen to the most recent presentation from Noble.
On a side note, I have noticed that they have removed themselves from the BIO CEO conference. I wonder if they thought Noble was a better venue to do the most updated presentation. Either that, or they are messing with me for finding out their future presentation activity.