Primary Job Title Founder, Chairman and Chief Scientific Officer Primary Organization 
Phoenix PharmaLabs Inc.
Location Woods Cross, Utah, United States Regions Western US Gender Male
Dr. Lawson is responsible for the planning of R & D and the supervision and execution of all chemistry activities related to drug discovery and development.
John Lawson is an expert in medicinal and synthetic organic chemistry. As a senior Medicinal Chemist and Project Manager at Stanford Research Institute (SRI International) for 20 years, he
headed the Neurochemistry R & D Group with responsibilities for the discovery and development of new compounds in neuroscience area including analgesics, anti-convulsants, anxiolytics, and stroke. While at SRI, Lawson collaborated for ten years with Dr. Toll, Chief Neuropharmacologist and Board Member of Phoenix PharmaLabs (see below), on analgesic drugs under NIH grant funding. During this period, Dr. Lawson discovered the initial class of opioids capable of relieving pain without the typical side-effect problems of morphine-like opioids. After leaving SRI, Lawson assisted in the opening of a synthetic laboratory at SynVax, Inc., in northern Utah, for the purpose of developing and patenting new drugs related to Nociceptin — a recently discovered brain chemical that modulates pain responses. Two years later, he left SynVax and founded Phoenix PharmaLabs, Inc. (PPL), for the purpose of renewing the development of non-addicting opioid compounds. John holds a BS degree with Phi Kappa Phi honors from Iowa State University and a Ph.D. from the University of Oregon. He was also a Postdoc. fellow at Syntex Corp.
