Fresh off a $17 million Series A round, Qnovia is looking to bring a smoking cessation medical device to market in 2025.
Health care executive Mario Danek founded the company in 2018. The goal is to develop and market RespiRx, a hand-held aerosol device that delivers nicotine quickly, helping people quit smoking.
In 2020, Brian Quigley, the former CEO of Altria Group’s smokeless division, joined the company as COO. He was named CEO in August, and Danek moved over to chief technology officer. Quigley worked in the tobacco industry for 16 years and is passionate about helping people quit smoking.
“I am a firm believer that we have to help smokers and help reduce the harm associated with cigarette use,” Quigley said. “And so, when I was the CEO of the smokeless business and also when I took over the vapor business, that was kind of my focus. It was something I was very passionate about it.”
One of Quigley’s first tasks was a rebrand. The company began as Respira Technologies but was renamed as Qnovia over the summer. It was worried about confusion and wanted to create a distinct name.
Quigley’s other task was establishing a base of operations in Richmond. He is in the process of moving the company’s headquarters from California, where the company was founded, to the Richmond area. Quigley said Richmond offers a lot of advantages to the business, including access to a large number of researchers, including Virginia Commonwealth University, and a growing pharmaceutical industry.
The company has five W-2 employees, including Quigley, scattered between California, Texas and Illinois. Qnovia has also hired around 200 contractors and is working with a Boston company on manufacturing the device, Quigley said.
The market for smoking cessation is huge. The U.S. has 40 million smokers and about 60% try to quit each year. Many have tried gum and nicotine patches, but Quigley said those products do not deliver nicotine quickly enough. He said vaping delivers nicotine quickly but still has harmful chemicals.
“We are looking at an impactful way through providing a potentially breakthrough cessation technology to help smokers quit,” Quigley said.
Qnovia wants to make the product only available with a prescription.
“That keeps some of the guardrails on,” Quigley said.
The company is hoping to begin human trials next year with an eye on bringing a product to market in 2025.
Quigley said he foresees other applications for the technology besides smoking cessation; asthma, migraines and pain management were a few he suggested. The aerosol application could be used as a delivery mechanism for other drugs besides nicotine.
“We could deliver pain management drugs, because the device actually has the controls to basically eliminate illegitimate use or overuse that leads to addiction,” Quigley said. “There's device development work and drug formulation to work on … [and] that’s where we're getting now.”
The recent capital raise will fund the company through initial trials, Quigley said. He expects the company will begin another fundraising round next year. The recent round was led by Larkspur, California’s Blue Ledge Capital and included participation from Tokyo’s DG Ventures; New York’s Evolution VC Partners; Burlington, Vermont’s Gaingels; Tampa, Florida’s TL Capital and New York’s Vice Ventures.
