De Novo sells license to Lilly for drug discovery software.(De Novo Pharmaceuticals Ltd. )(Eli Lilly and Co.)

LONDON -- De Novo Pharmaceuticals Ltd. sold the first license for its drug discovery software to Eli Lilly and Co., following a restructuring late last year that saw De Novo abandon in-house product development to focus on commercializing its platform technology.

Bart Wuurman, who became CEO of De Novo in November, acknowledged it was a "step against the trend" to move out of product development, but told BioWorld International. "We have world-class technology--I really think it is the best computational technology around--and we're doing in-house discovery other people could do as well, if not better. Over the past year and a half we have patented 10 families of chemical …