In response to "Hedge funds hiring people to hold back a drug that can SAVE LIVES?" you said "I believe that is exactly what has been happening and evil is the proper word to describe it."
And you're obviously entitled to your belief, but.... I don't know much about hedge funds but I know that all businesses have only one purpose in hiring employees...to help them earn money. Sometimes hedge funds and other entities earn money by selling stocks short in the hope that their prices will go down. And sometimes in order to facilitate that process they will publish blogs/articles/newsletters that bring out what they perceive to be the negatives about the valuations and operations of the companies involved. They can LEGALLY do that as long as they tell the truth. The morality of it is a separate issue (we know that a reduced share price can pose problems for the companies as they try to raise capital in order to develop their drugs). But for context there is a flip side. The companies involved regularly issue press releases promoting their efforts, rarely making note of the real negatives that might be revealed by the hedge funds/short interests. There's nothing illegal about that as long as they tell the truth. We've seen the link to https://www.precisionvaccinations.com/vaccines/brilacidin-covid-19-therapeutic many times....they simply copy and paste the IPIX press releases which are naturally 100% positive and the benefits of which can be expected to inure to the share price.
Sometimes there are important distinctions between the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Rarely does one get the whole truth from an interested party.
The common thread is the requirement for the truth and if that is what is provided then no one should complain. The chips fall both ways in drug development....unfortunately only one way in the case of IPIX....but the truth is that there are more failures than successes in this business.
So the question is if "evil is the proper word to describe" the short side's activities then what is the word that best describes holding out promise for a drug which, as has been the case every time in the efforts of IPIX, never gets to its intended patient population? Referring to any of them as "a drug that can SAVE LIVES" hasn't been shown to be true. Offering what ends up to have been false hope to sick people must have a descriptor....I guess when it's done in the name of raising capital it's a "necessary evil".
I'm not short IPIX and never have been, but those who have been short have been on the right side of things when it comes to raising capital for themselves. It's not a pleasant thought but it's the truth and it's called the profit motive, not evil.
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
