ADVISORY/Investigational Hepatitis B Drug, Adefovir Dipivoxil, Rapidly Reduces Virus Levels by 99.99%.

--(BW HealthWire)--

27 Percent of Patients Lost the Hepatitis B "e" Antigen and 20 Percent

Seroconverted, Improving Immunologic Control of the Virus

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WHO:                Jenny Heathcote, M.D., University of Toronto, will
                    present data from Phase II human clinical studies
                    of adefovir dipivoxil for the treatment of
                    patients with chronic hepatitis B.

WHAT:               New data (Abstract No. 620) show that a once-daily
                    dose of the oral antiviral agent adefovir
                    dipivoxil for 12 weeks rapidly reduced levels of
                    the hepatitis B virus in patients by 99.99 percent
                    (4.0 log10)(a).

                    Chronic hepatitis B (HBV) is a potentially fatal
                    liver disease that affects more than 350 million
                    people worldwide. In the United States, chronic
                    HBV affects 1.25 million people and is one of the
                    10 most common causes of death. The Centers for
                    Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more
                    than $700 million is spent annually to treat the
                    disease in this country. According to the
                    Hepatitis B Foundation, chronic HBV is the leading
                    cause of liver cancer.

WHERE:              American Association for the Study of Liver
                    Disease, Annual Meeting
                    Sheraton Chicago Hotel, Ballroom VI-VII

WHEN:               Sunday, November 8th at 4:13 p.m.

CONTACT:            To schedule interviews with Dr. Heathcote or
                    to receive faxed copies of all adefovir
                    dipivoxil abstracts, call Sheryl Meredith of
                    Gilead Sciences, Corporate Communications at
                    650/572-6505; Pager: 888/731-9085.

               For more information on Gilead Sciences,
         please visit the corporate website at www.gilead.com.

Note (a): The "10" of log10 should appear as subscript.