The Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO) said President and CEO Jim Greenwood intends to step down after the 2020 election and will help transition a new leader. A former congressman from Pennsylvania, Greenwood was appointed head of BIO in 2005, succeeding the organization's founding president, Carl Feldbaum.

Cygnal Therapeutics Inc., of Cambridge, Mass., was unveiled by Flagship Pioneering this week as a startup developing drugs targeting exoneural biology, an understanding of how nerves and neural signaling drive human health and disease. The company, led by CEO Pearl Huang, is focused initially on cancer and inflammatory disease.

Viela Bio Inc., of Gaithersburg, Md., said it closed its IPO of 9.08 million shares, a total that includes 1.18 million shares sold from the exercise in full by the underwriters of their option to purchase additional shares, at $19 each. The gross proceeds were approximately $172.6 million.

Theratechnologies Inc., of Montreal, reported that for the third quarter ended Aug. 31, consolidated revenue for the three- and nine-month periods totaled $16.11 million and $46.8 million, respectively, compared to $13.52 million and $31.23 million, respectively, for the same periods last year, an increase of 19.1% and 49.9%. 

Kinoxis Therapeutics Pty Ltd., of Melbourne, Australia, received an NIH National Institute of Drug Abuse grant for $4.6 million to fund preclinical and clinical development of Kinoxis' lead compound, KNX-100, for treating opioid withdrawal. The funding is connected to achieving certain development milestones, as KNX-100 is in a phase I study in healthy volunteers.