By Saabira Chaudhuri

 

British American Tobacco PLC is walking away from its Voke nicotine inhaler after spending years trying and failing to commercialize the product.

In a Thursday statement, BAT said it was transferring the manufacturing and intellectual property rights back to Voke's creator, Kind Consumer--which will take charge of commercializing Voke--in return for deferred contingent payments.

A spokeswoman for Kind Consumer didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

BAT said it would focus on its heat-not-burn and vapor products going forward.

Paul Triniman, chief executive of Kind, said the company hopes to bring Voke to the market "as soon as possible."

BAT in 2014 received a medicinal license for Voke from the U.K.'s Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, marking the first time a product from a major tobacco company had been licensed by a Western government. But the London-based tobacco giant delayed the launch several times after being unable to find a way to manufacture Voke at scale.

 

Write to Saabira Chaudhuri at saabira.chaudhuri@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

January 05, 2017 05:55 ET (10:55 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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