Gilead extends its funding support for the Gilead Sciences Research Centre

Gilead Sciences, Inc. (Nasdaq:GILD) today announced it has extended its funding support of the Gilead Sciences Research Centre at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry (IOCB) of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic for an additional five years. Gilead will provide a $1.15 million annual donation to IOCB in order to continue to fund the Research Centre’s operations and ongoing research efforts. In July 2006, Gilead announced an initial five-year annual donation to IOCB for the establishment and support of the Research Centre. Gilead has the first option to license inventions that result from the Research Centre’s scientific programs and drug discovery efforts.

In 1991 and 1992, Gilead entered into license agreements with IOCB in Prague and the Rega Institute for Medical Research, Katholic University in Leuven, Belgium that cover a broad range of biologically active nucleotide analogues. Several of these nucleotide compounds discovered through a collaborative research effort between Dr. Antonín Holý, IOCB, and Dr. Erik De Clercq, Rega Institute, were developed by Gilead, resulting in Vistide(R) (cidofovir injection) for the treatment of CMV retinitis in AIDS patients, Viread(R) (tenofovir disoproxil fumarate) for the treatment of HIV and chronic hepatitis B infection and Hepsera(R) (adefovir dipivoxil) for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B.

“It has been 25 years since IOCB in collaboration with the Rega Institute made the initial seminal discovery of the promising novel class of broad-spectrum antiviral nucleotide analogue compounds that, ultimately, have helped advance patient care for millions of people with life-threatening diseases,” said John C. Martin, Chairman and CEO, Gilead Sciences. “We are proud of our ongoing collaboration with IOCB and are pleased to support the Research Centre’s leadership role in exploring the important field of nucleotide analogues as potential therapeutics for infectious diseases and other unmet medical needs.”

“Gilead Sciences Research Centre in Prague is an excellent opportunity for us to collaborate with an established and productive industry partner. It opens up new horizons for applied research at the Institute and at the same time extends the legacy from the past excellent collaboration between Dr. Holý’s team and Gilead. The generous support from Gilead helps us search for new scientific paradigms and approaches that may help address existing medical problems and also allows us to focus on new exploratory research avenues that would otherwise be difficult to pursue effectively,” said Dr. Zdenek Havlas, the Director of IOCB.