Company A’s stock price is low. The execs buy up as many shares as possible. Company A announces a new wonder drug that can cure cancer and Ebola and hepatitis and a host of other maladies. Company A’s stock goes through the roof. The execs sell their stocks. Later the research data on the drug is revealed as bogus (just like 50% of all current drug research. The execs and their pals at the FDA retire and move to Cancun.
Rinse and repeat.
Sadly, my first thought when I read the article was, with the current administration, the greatest obstacle in this sort of discovery is to decide how much the kickback will be and who is going to get it.
(Okay, I'm an old Chicago boy. Show me anything in the past with this bunch makes me wrong on this deal...)