Elsevier Acquires Aureus Sciences, Provider of Databases and Information Tools for Pharmaceutical and Biotech Companies

AMSTERDAM, January 8, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

Elsevier to expand its suite of solutions to cover the entire drug discovery and development value chain by launching new life sciences solutions

Elsevier, a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services, announced today the acquisition of Aureus Sciences, a Paris, France based privately held company that provides databases and information tools to pharmaceutical and biotech companies.

Formed in 2002, Aureus Sciences gathers unique and high quality quantitative biological activity data for major therapeutic drug targets. This content enables researchers to identify the most promising compounds, repurpose existing compounds and identify targets with which the new compounds might interact.

"The acquisition of Aureus Sciences provides us with tremendous opportunities to generate more value for our customers," said Mark van Mierle, Managing Director Elsevier Pharmaceutical and Biotech Group. "With the combination of Aureus content assets and the content already available by Elsevier, we can create a valuable solution for those in need of improving speed and accuracy of lead-finding, decision-making and other key processes."

The acquisition enables the combination of high quality and deeply extracted content from both companies to launch new solutions for our Pharmaceutical and Biotech customers. The first evidence of this will be seen early this year with the release of a new medicinal chemistry solution.

"The integration of Aureus into Elsevier, and the consolidation of best in class content, will complement Elsevier's leadership in biomedical disciplines and strengthen our ability to offer new innovative databases to researchers in medicinal chemistry and pharmacology," said Jason Theodosiou, CEO of Aureus Sciences.  "We will see many positive synergies resulting from this combination."

The acquisition is effective immediately and financial terms of the transaction are not being disclosed.

About Aureus Sciences

Headquartered in Paris, Aureus Sciences provides scientific databases and software applications for researchers involved in the drug discovery and development process. Furthermore, the company focuses on providing solutions to the needs of pharmaceutical and biotech companies to leverage information and knowledge as a decision making tool and to increase the speed and efficiency of their drug discovery and development process. Over the course of 10 years and with a significant investment, the Company has developed a unique Knowledge Production Platform which analyzes, indexes, and organizes critical chemical and bioactivity information into databases.

About Elsevier

Elsevier is a world-leading provider of scientific, technical and medical information products and services. The company works in partnership with the global science and health communities to publish more than 2,000 journals, including The Lancet and Cell, and close to 20,000 book titles, including major reference works from Mosby and Saunders. Elsevier's online solutions include ScienceDirect, Scopus, Reaxys, ClinicalKey and Mosby's Nursing Suite, which enhance the productivity of science and health professionals, and the SciVal suite and MEDai's Pinpoint Review, which help research and health care institutions deliver better outcomes more cost-effectively.

A global business headquartered in Amsterdam, Elsevier employs 7,000 people worldwide. The company is part of Reed Elsevier Group PLC, a world-leading provider of professional information solutions in the Science, Medical, Legal and Risk and Business sectors, which is jointly owned by Reed Elsevier PLC and Reed Elsevier NV. The ticker symbols are REN (Euronext Amsterdam), REL (London Stock Exchange), RUK and ENL (New York Stock Exchange).

Media Contact
Christopher Capot
Director, Corporate Relations
Elsevier
+1-212-633-3164
c.capot@elsevier.com