Kind Consumer Limited was a UK-based company that developed Voke, a nicotine inhaler intended to address

tobacco harm reduction Tobacco harm reduction (THR) is a public health strategy to lower the health risks to individuals and wider society associated with using tobacco products. It is an example of the concept of harm reduction, a strategy for dealing with the use of ...

. The company was founded in 2006 by Alex Hearn, a British inventor and

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

based in London.realbusiness (2011) - Idea of the week: the healthy cigarette
/ref> The company collapsed into administration in 2020, after raising £140m in funding from investors.

Voke

Kind Consumer's inhaler
Voke
, was designed to provide the combination of a rapid delivery of nicotine and the unique respiratory tract sensory cues of inhaled nicotine which together are of primary importance in relieving craving for nicotine. The idea took 13 years to develop and was the brainchild of Alex Hearn, an asthmatic Oxford graduate whose parents smoked and who went through more than 800 prototypes before settling on a design. The Voke Inhaler contains a micro-valve which is activated by the user inhaling, and unlike an e-cigarette, does not need electronics, batteries or heat to produce a hit of nicotine. Since it uses inhaler technology to deliver the nicotine, the Voke administers a precise dose of the drug which does not contain the tar, tobacco or other substances found in regular cigarettes. In late 2010, Kind Consumer agreed an exclusive development and distribution agreement with Nicoventures Limited (later renamed Nicovations Limited) a wholly owned subsidiary of British American Tobacco plc. BAT's manufacturing, intellectual property, manufacturing, marketing and branding rights were assigned t
Kind Consumer
(Jan 2017) who took back ownership for the commercialisation of Voke. In September 2014, Voke became the first simulated cigarette to be authorised by the UK's

Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) is an executive agency of the Department of Health and Social Care in the United Kingdom which is responsible for ensuring that medicines and medical devices work and are acceptably ...

(MHRA) as a nicotine replacement therapy (NRT). The device is seen as a competitor to both e-cigarettes and nicotine-replacement therapies, such as gum and patches. Voke was launched in the UK on Nov 5th 2019. It can be prescribed as an aid to smoking cessation or reduction, or can be purchased directly from Kind Consumer at a comparable cost to a pack of cigarettes.

Funding

Kind Consumer attracted investment from an

investment trust An investment trust is a form of investment fund found mostly in the United Kingdom and Japan. Investment trusts are constituted as public limited companies and are therefore closed ended since the fund managers cannot redeem or create shares. ...

and a number of angel investors: *

Woodford Patient Capital Trust Schroders UK Public Private Trust, formerly Woodford Patient Capital Trust () is a British investment trust dedicated to long-term investments predominantly in the United Kingdom, established in 2015. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange. The ...

a large British investment trust dedicated to long term investments predominantly in the United Kingdom *Sir

Terry Leahy Sir Terence Patrick "Terry" Leahy (born 28 February 1956) is a British businessman, previously the CEO of Tesco, the largest British retailer and the third-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues. He now lives in Cuffley, Hertford ...

, former Chief Executive of

Tesco plc Tesco plc () is a British multinational groceries and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Welwyn Garden City, England. In 2011 it was the third-largest retailer in the world measured by gross revenues and the ninth-largest in th ...

The Independent newspaper(2011) - Leahy invests in 'safe' tobacco (after Tesco made a killing on cigarettes)
/ref> *Sir Peter Davis, former Chief Executive and Chairman of

J Sainsbury plc J Sainsbury plc, trading as Sainsbury's, is the second largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom, with a 14.6% share of UK supermarket sales. Founded in 1869 by John James Sainsbury with a shop in Drury Lane, London, the company ...

Martin Beaumont Martin Dudley Beaumont CVO (born 6 August 1949) is a British businessman who was, until October 2007, the chief executive of the Co-operative group, today a £9.4 billion turnover enterprise employing in excess of 85,000 people across a diverse p ...

, former Chief Executive of the

Co-operative Group Co-operative Group Limited, trading as Co-op, is a British consumer cooperative, consumer co-operative with a group of retail businesses including food retail, wholesale, e-pharmacy, insurance and legal services, and funeral care. The Co-op ...

* Jon Moulton, a British

Venture Capitalist Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which hav ...

and founder of Better Capital

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://www.kindconsumer.com/ Companies based in the London Borough of Camden Health care companies of the United Kingdom 2006 establishments in the United Kingdom Smoking cessation