Just because a trial failed does not mean it was sabotaged first lne, pancreatic, Sunrise were just straight up failures. The reason for the shorting is simple. There are no buyers. And the holders are retail - the weakest of hands. So of course the penny stock boiler room gang is going to try to make money on the downside. No real hedge fund gets involved with a stock with such small trading volume - not enough money to waste their time. A hostile takeover? Shareholders should be so lucky.