Roger Perlmutter

President and CEO, Eikon Therapeutics

Roger Perlmutter is president, CEO and board chair of Eikon Therapeutics, a private biotechnology company that employs advanced imaging technologies to identify novel therapeutic candidates by virtue of their effects on protein dynamics in living cells. A highly accomplished industry as well as academic leader with more than 35 years of experience, Roger was previously executive vice president, Merck & Co., and president of Merck Research Laboratories, where he supervised the discovery and development of numerous lifesaving medicines including KEYTRUDA™, Merck’s foundational immuno-oncology therapeutic, which continues to transform cancer care throughout the world. Before this, Roger spent 12 years as executive vice president and head of R&D at Amgen, where he is credited with having revolutionized the development of important biopharmaceuticals for the treatment of osteoporosis and cancer-related bone disease, and for the reduction of hypercholesterolemia-related cardiovascular risk.

Prior to assuming leadership roles in industry, Roger was a professor in the departments of immunology, biochemistry and medicine at the University of Washington, Seattle, and also served as chairman of its department of immunology, where he was at the same time an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. His research focused on understanding the signaling pathways that control lymphocyte activation. Prior to his role at the University of Washington, he was a lecturer in the division of biology at the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena.

Roger is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and both a distinguished fellow and past president of the American Association of Immunologists.