Full Press Release Details
MILLBRAE, Calif., Aug. 10, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Eikon Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: EIKN) (“Eikon”), a late-stage clinical biopharmaceutical company dedicated to developing innovative medicines to address serious unmet medical needs, today announced the addition of Johnny Bennett, Ph.D. to its Scientific Advisory Board. Dr. Bennett currently serves as Vice President, and Head of Discovery Chemistry at Merck Research Laboratories.
Eikon has a long-standing relationship with Merck (known as MSD outside of the US and Canada). Merck has provided their anti-PD-1 therapy, KEYTRUDA ® (pembrolizumab), for registration-enabling trials involving EIK1001, Eikon’s systemically administered TLR7/8 dual agonist, and for initial combination studies with EIK1005, Eikon’s proprietary Werner helicase inhibitor. In addition, Merck participated in Eikon’s initial public offering. Eikon and Merck have now agreed to further this ongoing relationship by adding Dr. Bennett to Eikon’s most senior external scientific advisory group.
“Eikon’s Scientific Advisory Board brings together accomplished scientists with diverse expertise and the independent perspective needed to help us sharpen our research priorities,” said Roger M. Perlmutter, M.D., Ph.D., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Eikon Therapeutics. “Dr. Bennett is an exceptionally accomplished medicinal chemist and drug discovery leader at Merck Research Laboratories. In this context, it is a great pleasure to welcome Dr. Bennett, whose judgment I personally hold in very high regard, to participate as a member of our Scientific Advisory Board.”
A native of Scotland, Dr. Johnny Bennett earned his undergraduate and Ph.D. degrees from Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh before beginning his career with N.V. Organon in the Netherlands in 1997. There, he worked across neuroscience and cardiovascular disease, with his neuroscience research culminating in the discovery of sugammadex (Bridion®), the first medicine developed to rapidly reverse neuromuscular blockade following surgery. In recognition of this achievement, he was a co-recipient of both the American Chemical Society Heroes of Chemistry Award and the Royal Society of Chemistry Malcolm Campbell Memorial Award for outstanding contributions to the biological and medical sciences.
After relocating to the United States in 2011, Dr. Bennett joined Merck as Senior Director of Discovery Chemistry in West Point before moving to lead the Discovery Chemistry organization at the company’s Boston site in 2012. He has since taken on a series of increasingly broad leadership roles within Merck’s Discovery Chemistry group, and was promoted to Vice President in 2022. In recognition of his experience and leadership, Dr. Bennett also served as interim Head of Discovery Oncology in 2024. Earlier this year Dr. Bennett was promoted to his current role of Vice President and Head of Discovery Chemistry.
Dr. Bennett joins a distinguished group of scientists serving on the company’s Scientific Advisory Board, including:
• Eric Betzig, Ph.D., is a co-founder of Eikon, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and a 2014 Nobel laureate whose pioneering work in super-resolution microscopy helped provide the technological foundation for Eikon’s proprietary single molecule tracking (SMT) platform.
• Thomas Cech, Ph.D., is a Distinguished Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Colorado, Boulder and a 1989 Nobel laureate whose research established the ability of certain RNA molecules to behave as enzymes.
• Trey Ideker, Ph.D., is the Director of the Big Data Institute at the University of Oxford (UK), and a Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Diego. He is a leader in computational approaches to understanding complex biological processes, including those associated with disease pathogenesis.
• Robert “Tij” Tjian, Ph.D., is a co-founder of Eikon, a professor of biochemistry, biophysics and structural biology and the Li Ka Shing Chancellor's Chair in Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, and former president of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
• Wendy B. Young, Ph.D., is an accomplished medicinal chemist and drug discovery executive who previously led small-molecule drug discovery research at Genentech and now advises biotechnology companies and serves as an advisor to GV (Google Ventures).
About Eikon Therapeutics Eikon is a late-stage clinical biopharmaceutical company dedicated to building a global, fully-integrated organization developing innovative medicines to address serious unmet medical needs. Eikon’s initial focus is oncology, where it is advancing a pipeline of drug candidates targeting areas of high unmet need that could eventually become critical medicines for the treatment of various cancers. Eikon deploys its technology platform, including its proprietary single molecule tracking system, to develop internally-derived novel therapies, while also leveraging the deep expertise of its management team to in-license promising assets. Eikon’s vision is to become a generational leader, by purposefully integrating traditional biology research with advanced engineering to develop better medicines faster. For more information, visit www.eikontx.com.
Forward-Looking/Safe Harbor Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the “safe harbor” provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All statements in this press release that are not historical facts are hereby identified as forward-looking statements for this purpose. These statements may be identified by words such as “aims,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “could,” “estimates,” “expects,” “forecasts,” “goal,” “intends,” “may,” “plans,” “possible,” “potential,” “seeks,” “will” and variations of these words or similar expressions that are intended to identify forward-looking statements, although not all forward-looking statements contain these words. Forward-looking statements in this press release include, but are not limited to, statements regarding: the therapeutic potential, safety, and efficacy of Eikon’s product candidates; the timing for anticipated data readouts; expected milestones and business objectives for 2026 and beyond; and other statements regarding Eikon’s future operations, financial performance, financial position, prospects, objectives, strategies and other future events.
These forward-looking statements are based upon management’s current expectations and assumptions, and are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results and events to differ materially and adversely from those indicated by such forward-looking statements including, among others: our limited operating history; our significant net losses incurred since inception and the likelihood of incurring additional losses for the foreseeable future; our need for substantial additional funding; the early stage of development of many of our product candidates and the possibility that our product candidates may fail in development; our dependence on the success of our current product candidates; our ability to leverage our technology platform to enable more informed drug research and development; legal and regulatory risks; intellectual property-related risks; and those risks, uncertainties and other factors discussed under the caption “Risk Factors” and elsewhere in Eikon’s Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2026, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) on May 11, 2026, and in other public filings with the SEC in the future.
As a result, you should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements made in this press release speak only as of the date of this press release, and Eikon undertakes no obligation to update such forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise, except as required by law.
KEYTRUDA ® is a registered trademark of Merck Sharp & Dohme LLC, a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Rahway, NJ, USA.