John Lewis obituary

My father, John Lewis, who has died aged 92, played a leading role in the development of buprenorphine, used successfully to treat millions of people worldwide as an alternative to morphine as a painkiller after operations, and later as an alternative to methadone, to treat opioid drug addicts. He did this primarily in his role as research and development director at Reckitt & Colman pharmaceuticals (1965-89), and later at Bristol University, where he set up the Reckitt & Colman psychopharmacology unit led by David Nutt. In the 1990s his research became independently funded, moving to Bath University in 2000, where it was led by Steve Husbands. Nutt and Husbands said: “The development of buprenorphine is John Lewis’s greatest scientific legacy. Along with the pharmacologist Alan Cowan, John chose buprenorphine from all the candidate drugs developed at Reckitt & Colman … Buprenorphine had characteristics that John recognised would make it of interest for the treatment of opioid dependence, notably heroin addiction. At the University of Bristol, John supported work to demonstrate how to transfer methadone patients on to buprenorphine. “Subsequently, with support from Nida [the US-based National Institute on Drug Abuse], buprenorphine (as Subutex) and a buprenorphine-naloxone combination (Suboxone) have become the leading agonist medications for opioid substitution therapy in the western world.” Born in Gloucester, to Frances (nee Mills), a professional housekeeper, and Charles Lewis, a railway station booking office manager, John went to Sir Thomas Rich’s school, then won an open exhibition to study chemistry at Merton College, Oxford, where he gained a first-class honours degree and completed a doctorate (1950-56). He then worked at the chemical manufacturer Albright & Wilson in Oldbury, Worcestershire, for two years before becoming a chemistry lecturer at Loughborough University. While there, he also captained Loughborough rugby club and played rugby for Leicestershire. After joining Reckitt & Colman in Hull in 1965, he was promoted first to head of medicinal chemistry before becoming research director in 1976. He also represented Hull in the Yorkshire squash league. In 1989 he moved to Bristol to set up the Reckitt & Colman psychopharmacology unit. After the unit moved to Bath, my father continued to meet the team regularly and maintain his professional interest and worldwide contacts until his retirement in 2018. His international reputation in opioid chemistry was recognised when he was given the Nathan B Eddy award from the US-based College on Problems of Drug Dependence in 1998, for which he received letters of congratulations from Queen Elizabeth II and President Bill Clinton. Charles O’Keefe, co-chair of the Friends of NIDA, said of John: “His contributions to science were only exceeded by the results of them: discoveries that have provided treatment and hope to millions of patients and their families who will never be aware of his contributions.” In 1955 he married Joy Bubb. She survives him, along with their children, Kate, Richard and me, eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.