Biotech Values

[biomaven0]

it’s legal for insiders to exercise stock options for the explicit purpose of benefiting from an upcoming development

Unless the options are expiring I don't see that as a big deal. The only detriment to the company compared with a post-news exercise would be some reduction in tax benefit.

In your scenario, for the insider to benefit it would need to be an exercise and hold, which is a very rare transaction.

Peter