(Montreal, Canada. February 16, 2005) – MDS Pharma Services, a leading provider of innovative drug discovery and development solutions and a business unit of MDS Inc. (TSX: MDS; NYSE: MDZ), has appointed five new senior staff members to its bioanalytical operations in Sittingbourne, United Kingdom, and Zurich, Switzerland.

The bioanalytical team in Zurich has been strengthened by the addition of:
• Senior Bioanalytical Principal Investigator Mark Bentley, previously a senior study director for 14 years with Covance in the U.K;
• Research and Development Manager Simon Wood, previously a research and development scientist with Covance in the U.K.;
• Head of Quality Assurance Rose Brookes, previously responsible for Good Laboratory Practice at the Government Central Science Laboratory in the U.K.; and
• Bioanalytical Principal Investigator Lesley Bentley, previously a study director for 12 years with Covance in the U.K.

At the new MDS Pharma Services Bioanalysis operation in Sittingbourne, the staff has been expanded to include Bioanalytical Principal Investigator Neil Adcock, previously a study director with Quintiles in Edinburgh.

“I am very pleased to welcome Mark, Simon, Rose, Lesley and Neil to our growing bioanalysis operations in Europe,” said MDS Pharma Services Senior Director of Bioanalysis - Europe John Robson, Ph.D. FRSC. “We are committed to providing our clients in Europe with the best possible service, and hiring staff with many years of industry experience has always been one of my highest priorities. The response from the pharmaceutical industry to our new operation in Sittingbourne has been encouraging, so we are especially pleased to be adding new staff to the experienced team already in place.”

MDS Pharma Services offers a full spectrum of resources to meet the drug discovery and development needs of the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. With 37 facilities in 21 countries, the company applies advanced scientific and technological expertise to each stage of the drug discovery and development process: discovery, preclinical, early clinical research (bioequivalence, phases I-IIa), bioanalysis, global clinical research (phases IIb-IV), and central lab. For more information, visit MDS Pharma Services' Web site at www.mdsps.com.

MDS Pharma Services is an integral part of MDS Inc. (TSX: MDS; NYSE: MDZ). MDS Inc. has more than 9,000 highly skilled people in 25 countries providing a diverse range of superior products and services to increase our customers' speed, precision and productivity in the drug development and disease diagnosis processes. We are a global health and life sciences company, recognized for our reliability and collaborative relationships. Please refer to our website at www.mdsintl.com to find out more about how we help create better outcomes in the treatment of disease.