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MDL Offers Free Database for AIDS Research; Release Provides NCI AIDS Database in Industry Standard Format

Business Wire, March 15, 2001

Medical & Health Writers

SAN LEANDRO, Calif.--(BW HealthWire)--March 15, 2001

MDL Information Systems, Inc., the recognized leader in discovery informatics for the life sciences and chemistry in industry and academia, has released a free database containing information on selected compounds found to be active in the National Cancer Institute's AIDS antiviral screen.

The release makes the National Cancer Institute's data on compounds capable of inhibiting the HIV virus accessible to the vast number of researchers who use MDL's industry standard ISIS/Host (Integrated Scientific Information System). ISIS is software that enables scientists to register, display, and retrieve scientific information, including three-dimensional representations of chemical structures.

"With AIDS increasingly posing a worldwide health crisis, we feel it is important to make this valuable information from the National Cancer Institute available to as many researchers as possible," says Bob Snyder, director of database marketing for MDL. "By putting the database in a format that researchers are familiar with and distributing it for free we hope to hasten the day that a cure can be discovered."

The World Health Organization estimated that at the end of the year 2000 over 36 million people were infected with HIV worldwide. That figure is 50% higher than the number authorities had predicted for the year 2000 ten years ago. More than 5 million people were newly infected in the past year, including 600,000 children.

The AIDS Database allows researchers to view chemical structures, compound names, registry numbers, and quantitative screening results. Researchers can search for compounds by structure and perform Rgroup decomposition to analyze the structure-activity relationships that contribute to effective AIDS drugs. The data and structures are stored in Oracle using MDL's Relational Chemical Gateway (RCG).

Researchers interested in acquiring the AIDS Database at no charge should contact an MDL sales representative. For MDL contact information, visit www.mdli.com/contact.> About MDL

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 Information Systems, Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Elsevier Science, Inc.

Note to Editors: MDL is a registered trademark in the United States and ISIS is a trademark of MDL Information Systems, Inc. Oracle is a registered trademark of the Oracle Corporation in the United States and other countries. Other product names and company names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners, in the United States and other countries. All rights reserved.