Gilead to donate $1.1M a year to Czech IOCB

US biopharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences says that is has established a program of annual donations to the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry at the Academy of Sciences in the Czech Republic. The firm will provide $1.1 million per year to the academy, for an initial five-year term, to fund the body's ongoing operations and research activities.

In the early 1990s, Gilead entered into a series of licensing agreements with the IOCB, Belgium's Rega Institute for Medical Research and the Katholic University in Leuven, in relation to a number of developmental nucleotide analogs identified by Antonin Holy and Erik DeClerq. Several of the resulting compounds were commercialized by the California-headquartered firm, including: Vistide (cidofovir injection), for the treatment of AIDS-related cytomegalovirus infection; Viread (tenofovir disoproxil fumarate), also used in the treatment of HIV; and the chronic hepatitis B drug Hepsera (adefovir dipivoxil).

John Martin, Gilead's chief executive, said that the compounds the company licensed from the IOCB form an important part of its product portfolio. He went on to say that "we are pleased to be able to honor the contribution of Dr Holy and the productive collaboration between Gilead and IOCB over the years through this donation."