Hailey Waller

​Acne drug maker Novan Inc. paid Chief Executive Officer Nathan Stasko $1.98 million in compensation in 2016, a 280 percent increase from $520,000 in 2015,  according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Stasko’s base salary increased 5.9 percent between the two years. The compensation increase in pay primarily came from $1.4 million in options awards associated with Stasko’s performance in fiscal 2015. Stasko owns 5.7 percent of the company’s stock, worth $5 million based on Tuesday’s share price. He also holds stock options worth another $353,000, including 30,000 shares at an exercise price of $1.12 and 33,333 shares at...

NeuroSpire of Durham has raised $618,000 from nine investors in a private stock offering, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission dated April 4. Chief Executive Officer Jake Stauch, 26, dropped out of Duke in 2012 to focus on NeuroSpire. His startup helps marketing companies conduct their own brain scan-based marketing tests. The concept is called neuromarketing. What is neuromarketing? Neuromarketing is market research enhanced with brain-imaging technology. NeuroSpire’s platform allows you to directly measure the brain’s electrical activity, uncovering deeper consumer insights than those afforded by traditional research methods. Emotional Engagement Our technology measures emotional...

​BioCryst Pharmaceuticals Inc., maker of the flu drug Rapivab, announced Monday that the European Medicines Agency will review its drug for the treatment of flu symptoms in adults. The London-based overseer of drugs sold in the European Union will issue a decision within 210 days on whether to allow the sale of Rapivab in the EU’s 28 member states and Norway and Iceland, a market of more than 500 million consumers. In December 2014, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved BioCryst’s Rapivab — an injection also known as peramivir — to treat influenza in adults. The drug is...

In the latest filing news across N.C.: A call center in Rutherford County is laying off 160 people. Meanwhile, Asheville-based Avadim Technologies is raising more cash. The details: Ameridial laying off 160 Ameridial, an Ohio-based call center company with locations in Ohio and North Carolina, will permanently lay off approximately 160 employees at its Rutherford County location as of March 31, due to the loss of a major account. The Spindale call center will retain 100 employees on a separate manufacturing contract. Mike McCarthy, vice president of health care for Ameridial, confirmed the company lost a contract with a...

Security Industry Specialists Inc., which provides security solutions for companies, retailers, events, and people internationally, will permanently lay off all 96 employees at its Forest City, North Carolina facility, due to the loss of its contract at the Facebook Data Center located at 408 Social Circle. This is according to a filing in accordance Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act. Over 80 percent of the employees to be laid off are security specialists. The rest are security operations center operators, shift supervisors and one operations manager. The official termination date is expected to be Jan. 31, 2017. A new...

Cempra Inc., a clinical-stage pharmaceutical company with no drugs on the market, announced Monday that Toyama Chemical Co., a subsidiary of Fujifilm Holdings Corp., began Phase 3 clinical trials with its pneumonia-fighting drug in Japan, the world’s second-largest antibiotic market. “We are excited and encouraged to see Toyama commencing their Phase 3 program and moving another step closer to the potential approval of solithromycin in Japan, where already high antibiotic resistance in pneumococcus strains is rising, highlighting the urgent unmet medical need for new therapies,” said Prabhavathi Fernandes, chief executive officer of Cempra, in a statement. Chapel Hill-based Cempra...