I am not impressed with the level of homework all that "smart money" put into their buy decisions then, and I am equally not impressed by the "smart money" shorting happening now.
IF someone is being paid by interested parties to suppress AVXL, then it is smart money. It could be a buyer, and someone posted a good list of companies that might be interested. It could explain the MOC transactions as well. They could be acquiring shares to enable low covering of the shorted shares. Who knows. The world can get quite twisted, when money is involved.