Benjamin Thorner

Ben Thorner serves as General Counsel & Chief Business Officer of Eikon Therapeutics, and as such oversees all legal matters and deal-making for the Company.

Prior to assuming this position, Ben served as Senior Vice President and Head of BD&L for Merck Research Laboratories. In that role, Ben supervised all dealmaking activities that contributed to the pipeline, which included discovery, technologies, preclinical and clinical stage deals as well as the MRL Ventures Fund.

Ben went to Merck from Novartis, where he served as Head of Transactions, Strategic Alliances at NIBR. In that role, he led a team of deal negotiators responsible for pre-PoC deals for Novartis’ therapeutics pipeline. Prior to Novartis, Ben held positions of increasing responsibility with Amgen in their legal and licensing organizations.

Prior to his industry career, Ben worked in private law practice providing counsel on strategic intellectual property issues, licensing agreements, strategic alliances, and other corporate transactions, with a focus on biotechnology and pharmaceutical clients. In addition, he served as clerk to the Honorable Randall R. Rader, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Ben holds a J.D. and M.A. (Biology) from the University of Virginia, and a B.A. from George Mason University. Ben previously served on the Board of the California Life Sciences Association and was granted membership in the following Bar Associations: New York, Colorado and Virginia.