Press Releases

June 26, 2000

XIII International Aids Conference to Be Broadcast on World Wide Web WEBCAST.AIDS2000.COM

Durban, South Africa -- June 26, 2000

People with HIV disease and healthcare professionals from around the world will be able to view sessions from the XIII International AIDS Conference on the World Wide Web, according to organizers of this global meeting. The Webcast (webcast.aids2000.com) will feature scientific presentations, complete with audio and video of speakers and their slides and will be available 24 hours a day beginning July 9, 2000. The Webcast will include daily highlight summaries and up to 50 presentations from each day of the conference, which will convene in Durban, South Africa, July 9-14, 2000.

“It has always been our intent to give the broadest possible coverage to the proceedings of this AIDS conference. Thousands of people who are passionately interested in new aspects of AIDS research, but unable to travel to the conference, will be able to participate in the meeting,” said Professor Hoosen Coovadia, of the XIII International AIDS Conference. “We hope that this global sharing of knowledge will stimulate new thinking in the battle against HIV disease.”

Speaking on behalf of the International Council of AIDS Service Organizations, a co-organizer of the XIII International AIDS Conference, community program chairpersons Peter Busse and Clarence Mini said, “Community-based organizations, providing care and support to millions of people living with HIV around the world, must continue initiating a broad range of crucial programs and policies to help support people living with HIV disease. The provision of information on the Internet is an additional resource for many of these groups and the people they serve. The organizers of the XIII International AIDS Conference have taken a major step forward in this effort by directly delivering conference presentations to a wider audience. Webcast.aids2000.com is a pioneering project and one that we hope will serve as a benchmark for other scientific conferences.”

Certain presentations will be available for review online within hours of their initial public viewing in Durban, while remaining presentations will be available within one to two weeks of the conference. In addition, daily summaries of the entire conference will be available for review and print. The Webcast service will be available at the Internet address webcast.aids2000.com and will be operational from July 9, 2000 until December 31, 2001.

The International AIDS Conference takes place once every two years and is the largest international HIV/AIDS forum for sharing new clinical, scientific and social data. More than 10,000 delegates are expected to attend this year’s meeting in Durban, including scientists, physicians and other healthcare professionals, people with HIV/AIDS, representatives of community groups and social workers.

The Webcast is made possible by the financial sponsorship of Gilead Sciences, Inc. “We are very pleased to be able to support this pioneering project,” said John C. Martin, Ph.D., President and CEO of Gilead Sciences. “By providing timely worldwide access to the comprehensive information presented at the conference, the Webcast will make a significant contribution to the knowledge base of all who are involved in the global fight against HIV.”

Gilead Sciences, Inc., headquartered in Foster City, CA, is an independent biopharmaceutical company that seeks to provide accelerated solutions for patients and the people who care for them. Gilead discovers, develops, manufactures and commercializes proprietary therapeutics for challenging infectious diseases (viral, fungal and bacterial infections) and cancer. Gilead maintains research, development or manufacturing facilities in Foster City, CA; Boulder, CO; San Dimas, CA; Cambridge, UK; and Dublin, Ireland and sales and marketing organizations in the United States, Europe and Australia.

The Webcast service provider is MediTech Media Ltd., an international medical communications agency with offices in the UK, USA, Germany, Italy, Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia.