Gilead Sciences Shareholders to Vote on HIV/AIDS Resolution

Religious investors ask Gilead to review impact of
global AIDS pandemic on company business model

NEW YORK CITY, NY and FOSTER CITY, CA///May 9, 2006/// Religious investors representing the Dominican Sisters of Adrian, Michigan, the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee, and the large healthcare system Catholic Healthcare West today called on Gilead Sciences shareholders to support item #6. Shareholders will gather tomorrow at Gilead's annual meeting to vote on the proposal.

A similar proposal at the 2005 annual meeting received 31.7% support, the highest recorded vote for a proposal concerning HIV/AIDS at a pharmaceutical company.

"It is important not only to patients and healthcare providers that Gilead act quickly and transparently when responding to the global AIDS crisis, but to shareholders as well. The global AIDS pandemic poses increasing risk to the pharmaceutical sector. By supporting this resolution, shareholders can act in their interests and in the interests of patients around the world," said Sister Judy Byron of the Dominican Sisters of Adrian, Michigan, the primary filer of the resolution.

Gilead has been praised by AIDS advocates and health care providers for creating a fixed dose combination pill containing three medicines - efavirenz (manufactured by Bristol-Myers Squibb), emtricitabine, and tenofovir in a once-daily single tablet regimen. However, critics have recently called on the company to more broadly register Gilead products in least developed countries; to reduce the prices of Gilead products in middle-income countries; to improve products for HIV-positive children; and to license Gilead products to multiple generic companies.

"Shareowners will support this resolution because they know the global AIDS crisis poses a wide variety of risks to companies like Gilead. Votes in favor will encourage management to build on their record - that means transparently and aggressively reducing risks and creating new market opportunities through effective responses to global AIDS," explained Daniel Rosan, the Program Director for Public Health at ICCR.

The ICCR HIV/AIDS Caucus represents a broad cross section of institutional investors. Roman Catholic religious orders, Protestant denominations, faith-based pension funds, and major health care providers are joining mutual funds, professional money managers, and organized labor in the effort. ICCR members boast a combined $110 billion in assets under investment. Many of the organizations have staff on the ground in developing countries fighting the HIV/AIDS Pandemic.
The resolution seeks "Shareholders request that our Board review the economic effects of the HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria pandemics on our Company's business strategy, and its initiatives to date, and report to shareholders within six (6) months following the 2006 annual meeting. This report, developed at reasonable costs and omitting proprietary information, will identify the impacts of these pandemics on the company."

ABOUT ICCR
ICCR is a thirty-five-year-old international coalition of 275 faith-based institutional investors including denominations, religious communities, pension funds, healthcare corporations, foundations and dioceses with combined portfolios worth an estimated $110 billion. ICCR members utilize religious investments and other resources to change unjust or harmful corporate policies, working for peace, economic justice and stewardship of the Earth.
ICCR members are currently engaging 31 companies on their response to the HIV/AIDS-TB-Malaria pandemics.

CONTACT: Daniel E. Rosan,
Program Director for Public Health
212-870-2317 // drosan @ iccr.org