SAN LEANDRO, California and LONDON, UK—November 5, 2002—MDL® Information Systems, Inc. (MDL®), the leader in discovery informatics for chemistry and the life sciences, announced that it (by and through its sister company, MDL Information Systems GmbH) has granted The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) a no-fee license to use the MIMAS CrossFire Service, which includes the Beilstein and Gmelin Databases. Under the terms of the license, visiting members of the scientific community who are already authorized users of the MIMAS CrossFire Service are eligible to access CrossFire Beilstein and CrossFire Gmelin at the Society's London premises.

The Beilstein Database, the world's most comprehensive collection of organic chemical information, contains chemical structures and reactions, associated chemical and physical properties, and detailed pharmacological and ecological data. The Gmelin Database is the world's largest compilation of inorganic and organometallic compounds and related physical properties. The powerful MDL® CrossFire® search engine makes it easy to explore these combined databases, offering researchers electronic access to over 9 million compounds and over 10 million chemical reactions.

"The Royal Society of Chemistry maintains the largest collection of chemically related information in the UK," said Nigel Lees, the Society's library and archival services manager. "CrossFire Beilstein and CrossFire Gmelin will give Society members what they have come to expect from the RSC's library services—comprehensive, accurate, and dependable data for efficient and robust discovery."

The Royal Society of Chemistry is accessing the CrossFire Service through Manchester Information and Associated Services (MIMAS), the national data centre based at the University of Manchester that provides networked access to key information sources used by the UK higher education and research communities—including the CrossFire service used by staff and students at 76 UK, Irish, and Scandinavian academic institutions.

"MIMAS welcomes this initiative which will enhance access to the CrossFire Service and which will strengthen the links between the University of Manchester and the Royal Society of Chemistry," said Julia Chruszcz, Director of National Data Services at Manchester Computing.

"Good decisions depend on good data," said Lars Barfod, MDL's executive vice president and chief business officer. "The CrossFire licensing agreement underscores MDL's commitment to the academic community, many of whose members rely on the RSC library for high quality chemical data in an easily accessible format."

The Royal Society of Chemistry is the Learned Society for the chemical sciences and the Professional Body for chemical scientists in the UK with over 46,000 members worldwide. The Society is a major international publisher and provider of chemical information, supports the teaching of the chemical sciences at all levels, organizes hundreds of chemical meetings a year, and is a leader in communicating science to the public. For more information, visit www.rsc.org.

MIMAS is a JISC-supported national data centre run by Manchester Computing at the University of Manchester, providing the UK and international education and research community with networked access to key data and information resources to support teaching, learning and research across a wide range of disciplines. For more information, visit www.mimas.ac.uk.

MDL Information Systems ("MDL") is the recognized leader in discovery informatics for the life sciences and chemistry in industry and academia. MDL software, content, and services provide the enterprise-wide discovery informatics framework for comprehensive and successful discovery research. We are an international business headquartered in San Leandro, CA with offices worldwide. MDL is a wholly owned subsidiary of Elsevier Science, Inc., which is part of the Reed Elsevier Group plc, owned by Reed Elsevier PLC (NYSE: RUK) and Reed Elsevier NV (NYSE: ENL). For more information about MDL, visit www.mdl.com.