Magnetic Attraction

Upon graduating from Clearwater High School in 1976, Allen S. Braswell Jr. had the opportunity to see the world, starting with a recommendation to West Point. Now he's back in Clearwater, bringing potentially important medical equipment.

The CEO of Pico-Tesla Magnetic Therapies LLC has opened the company's East Coast headquarters in a 4,000-square-foot space at Airport Business Center, just across from St. Petersburg/Clearwater International the Airport. Though the space is relatively small, its involvement could be huge in helping Pico-Tesla determine the effectiveness of electromagnetic treatments on patients with Parkinson's disease and type 2 diabetes.

“If we're successful, we get to change a lot of lives,” says Braswell, a former criminal defense lawyer who helped his father launch Circuit Test Inc., a Tampa company that repaired circuit boards for Fortune 500 companies. “The next big thing in medicine may come from a physicist or an engineer, rather than a chemist.”

How he went from jury trials to clinical trials is almost as dramatic. Braswell spent two years at the U.S. Military Academy before returning home in 1978 to attend the University of Florida, where he earned a bachelor's degree in finance during the next two years then spent two more years getting his law degree.

After three years working in Pinellas County courtrooms, the senior Allen Braswell recruited his son to join Circuit Test as vice president of sales in 1985, when the company was generating $2 million in annual revenue. He was promoted to president in 1991 and CEO in 1993.

Braswell's big breakthrough at Circuit Test was partnering with logistics leaders FedEx Corp. and United Parcel Service Inc. to allow its repair technicians to work within their Southeast facilities, thereby providing computer manufacturers a one-day turnaround on product repairs. “West Point taught me what you can do in 24 hours,” he says.

Circuit Test was approaching $50 million in revenue by the time it was purchased by EFTC Services in 1997. Having been able to retire comfortably by the time he turned 40, Braswell says he instead focused on pursuing business opportunities that would contribute to society.

He wound up going to Littleton, Colo., taking the CEO position at Pico-Tesla and, with two of his business partners, investing $4 million in the fledgling company in 2005. The company focused initially on Parkinson's disease, an incurable neuromuscular disease that strikes people of all ages and is most often associated with tremors and shuffling in elderly patients.

Pico-Tesla developed a trademarked “magnaceutical” therapy that uses an extremely low-level electromagnetic field. It involves a device called the Resonator, a special chair invented by Dr. Jerry Jacobson that is flanked by two large wheels known as Helmholtz coils.

Four clinical trials using the Resonator on both Parkinson's and diabetes patients have been completed at Pico-Tesla's Colorado base, with two more currently under way. Those results, if successful, will be submitted to the Food and Drug Administration for approval to a broader range of patients.

Aside from his own familiarity with Clearwater, Braswell says the Tampa Bay area is an ideal location for further study because of its large retiree base. “The key was to get a good location that allowed us to reach the right demographic,” he says. “It made it natural to come back here.”

The new office's proximity to the Pinellas airport will also allow patients from east of the Mississippi River to easily access the Resonator machines now installed locally. The machines may be leased to neurologists across the country if Pico-Tesla receives FDA approval.

The company is also in an ideal spot because it is within numerous other FDA-registered medical device companies throughout Florida. “Pico-Tesla will be in good company in Clearwater,” says Mike Meidel, director of Pinellas County Economic Development, adding that Pinellas has more medical technology employees than any other county statewide.

Braswell, who turned 52 on June 1, is getting plenty of help advancing Pico-Tesla's experimental therapies. In March, the company received the first $1 million of a $4-million capital raise aimed at funding two ongoing clinical trials and initiating more new studies. The company has also brought on board Francis Bellido, formerly president and COO of Supratek Pharma, as its first outside director.

It obviously could use more star power from the world's most famous Parkinson's patient — Michael J. Fox, the television and movie actor who has battled the disease for nearly 20 years. Fox visited the area in April to participate in the Outback Pro-Am golf tournament in Lutz.

Pico-Tesla has approached Fox's charitable foundation about its Resonator studies, though Braswell admits getting on its radar is difficult. In the meantime, he says the company is forging ahead with its clinical trials and accepting patients as subjects.

“We've done well in this area,” says Braswell, who will divide his time between the Clearwater and Littleton offices. “It is kind of exciting to get back to a place that has been good to us.”