Worcester Business Journal

www.wbjournal.com November 23, 2015 • Worcester Business Journal 7 Advisors of Barrington, R.I. NAI Glickman Kovago & Jacobs represented both parties. The new gas station is expected to open this month, the statement said. The BJ's store opened in the early 1990s. Spring Bank names chief medical officer Spring Bank Pharmaceuticals of Milford has brought on Dr. Nezam Afdhal as the company's chief medical officer, the company announced. The clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company that develops therapeutics for the treatment of viral infections has con- sulted with Dr. Afdhal since 2011. In his new role, he will help lead the next stage of the company's clinical development strategy, Martin Driscoll, president and CEO of Spring Bank, said in a statement. The company's most-advanced prod- uct candidate is a substance that could be used to fight viral infections such as HBV, HCV and RSV. Scott Cook promoted at Cogmedix Scott Cook was promoted to vice pres- ident of quality and compliance at Worcester-based Cogmedix, a wholly owned subsidiary of Coghlin Companies, the company announced. Cook will lead all aspects of quality initiatives at the medical device engineer- ing and manufacturing services provider. Cook, who has been with the company for five years, has over two decades of medical device and biopharmaceutical experience, working for companies including AstraZeneca, Biogen, Primedica Corp. and Charles River Laboratories. TJX's Canadian strength leads to 5% sales jump TJX announced a 5-percent gain in sales in the third quarter, with its Canadian division leading the way as the company continues to stress internation- al expansion. Net sales for the Framingham compa- ny were up 5 percent from the same quarter in 2015, climbing to $7.8 billion. Net income for the third quarter was $587 million and diluted earnings per share were 86 cents versus last year's 85 cents. The increases were driven by increased international sales, despite a negative impact from foreign currency exchange rates. EMC names new marketing officer Nina Hargus has been appointed chief marketing officer of EMC Information Infrastructure for the Hopkinton-based EMC Corp., the company announced. Hargus has served as the CMO at the computer-storage company's VCE orga- nization for the last three years. Previously, Hargus led the EMC Global Services Marketing organization, where she was responsible for driving activity for the company's $4.5-billion services arm. She will be based in Hopkinton. Dell recently announced that it would purchase EMC for approximately $67 billion. Drug loss, tampering reports up in Mass. From January of this year through the end of August, more instances of drug loss and tampering have been reported to the state's prescription monitoring pro- gram than in all of 2014. A report submitted to the legislature recently from the Department of Public Health's Office of Prescription Monitoring and Drug Control logs 751 instances of drug loss or tampering reported to the office's drug inspection unit in 2014. From Jan. 1 through Aug. 31 of this year, there have been 863. Jonathan Mundy, director of the office, said that there are a possible reasons for the increase, including a higher number of prescribers registered in the program and increased attention to theft or loss brought on by a focus on combating opi- oid addiction. Baker's approach to refugees backed Senate President Stanley Rosenberg backed Gov. Charlie Baker, saying that he supports the governor's cautious approach to accepting Syrian refugees and that the media ran with the wrong part of Baker's comments on the matter. "I think that the governor's principle message was actually not about whether we should hit pause or not, I think his principle message was, 'We need to make sure that we're doing everything here in Massachusetts to make sure that our people feel safe,'" Rosenberg, an Amherst Democrat, said on Boston Herald Radio. "It was the exuberance of certain indi- viduals to highlight the, sort of, the foot- note and turn it into the main story." Baker said he would have to be very cautious about accepting Syrian refugees in Massachusetts until the federal gov- ernment tells him a lot more about its plan for screening refugees who enter the country. Senate to push for employee social media protections The state Senate plans to renew its attempt to deliver social media privacy protections for students and employment candidates in Massachusetts. Sponsored by Assistant Majority Leader Sen. Cynthia Stone Creem, the bill (S 2034) would prohibit public and private educational institutions and employers from requiring that students or prospective workers disclose their social media account information. According to Creem, the bill includes exemptions for schools to deal with potential incidents or investigations tied to accounts. It also makes exceptions for employers, like financial and securities firms, which may require access. n Bringing healthcare to life. OF OUR PATIENTS RECOMMEND THEIR DOCTORS. 9 OUT OF 10 PATIENT #10, PLEASE CALL US SO WE CAN WORK THIS OUT. reliantmedicalgroup.org 9 out of 10_WBJ Jr page wAward.indd 1 11/9/2015 4:16:29 PM REGIONAL BRIEFS

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