FOR TV STAR MONTEL WILLIAMS, THIS PRODUCT PITCH IS PERSONAL.

Montel Williams backs device to help against MS

In his almost 60 years on Earth, American- born Montel Williams has done many things: he has been in the military; he has been the host of a television show that ran for 17 years; he’s hosted a national radio show; and he has been an actor and author. For the past 19 years he has also lived with multiple sclerosis.

This week he was in Canada to open the day’s trading at the Toronto Stock Exchange. He was there on behalf of Helius Medical Technologies Inc., a U. S.based medical technology company he helped form about six years back as a way of assisting people with MS.

And given the change experienced by Williams — a former bodybuilder who at one stage was told to lose weight as a way of dealing with MS and who was looking at the prospect of having to use a wheelchair — he’s passionate about the company and the device it owns.

“I know how much it can help,” said Williams, now a heli-skier, who looks in great physical shape and who has just returned from a visit to the Montreal Neurological Institute where he was, again, given a clean bill of health. “60 is the new 50,” he declares.

In Williams’ world it is a Portable Neuromodulation Stimulator ( PoNS.) It is a small, two- part device — a pulse generator and a mouthpiece — that fits around a person’s neck and works on a rechargeable lithium battery. The mouthpiece sits on a person’s tongue. The premise is that the tongue is the gateway to the brain.

The idea is to do 20 minutes of stimulation twice a day while doing physical therapy. In simple terms the machine — by working on the brain’s elasticity — tries to unlock the brain’s ability to heal itself. The device, which is not publicly available, has been used on 263 subjects, mostly in Wisconsin.

To get to that stage where PoNS is available for everyday use, Helius is planning two clinical trials. The first, underway since January, will focus on moderate Traumatic Brain Injury ( mTBI.) That trial will be partly paid by the U.S. military — in part because of Williams’ military contacts and partly because 30,000 of its almost two million active troops receive a mTBI each year.

The second trial will be conducted on MS patients starting in 2017. In all, 120 people in six cities will be tested. After building medical equity with the first trial, Helius needs to raise additional capital for that trial — presumably at higher prices.

If, for whatever reason, the machine doesn’t receive Health Canada and FDA approval, Helius’ Plan B is to turn itself into a consumerfocused medical technology company selling the device.

Helius has considerable intellectual property. The inventors have received three medical method patents, which have been licensed to the firm while Helius has 21 design and utility patents.

Initially, Williams formed a predecessor company with Phil Deschamps, a Canadian who has worked in the medical technology field in the U. S. for more than 20 years, and researchers from the University of WisconsinMadison. Together Williams and Deschamps owned half of Neurohabilitation Corp.

Helius went public in April 2014 — via a reverse takeover — and was initially listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange before moving to the TSX about six weeks back. Since then the shares have traded in the $ 1.07-$ 1.82 range. Prior to its TSX debut, Helius raised $9.2 million on which Mackie Research was the lead agent.