Pharma looks for quantum leap in drug development

Quantum computing and biotech companies are testing whether next-generation computing technology
could help them develop better drugs and cut the time and cost of finding new ones.

Why it matters:
Quantum computing is advancing, but it still hasn’t been harnessed to solve real-world problems that classical computers can’t. Biotech could be a proving ground for the practicality of quantum computing, which some skeptics say has been hyped, like AI.

• Making drugs faster and cheaper with quantum computers could solve one of pharma’s most vexing problems and simplify a process that now can take decades and cost billions.

Where it stands:
Today’s quantum computers are largely used for research problems — modeling materials or chemical reactions —
and aren’t day-to-day tools for drug discovery and design.

• But pharma and tech companies are hoping they can soon provide a more efficient and accurate way to analyze an ever-growing amount of data.

How it works:
Classical computers process data in only two states — ones and zeroes — while quantum computers harness the properties of subatomic particles and use qubits, which can represent ones and zeroes simultaneously, to in theory process information in exponentially more powerful ways.

• That effectively allows quantum computers to consider multiple solutions to a problem faster than a conventional computer.

Quantum computers should be able to precisely simulate molecules and the way they interact,
which current classical computers can at most approximate.

• Accurate predictions of the behavior of the thousands of atoms in a proposed drug and its environment would be a game-changer.

• Google and German pharma giant Boehringer Ingelheim are collaborating on using quantum computing for molecular simulations, and French quantum computing startup Pasqal is partnering with Qubit Pharmaceuticals to tackle the problem.

• But today’s quantum devices are error-prone and can generally only simulate simplified models that classical computers can also handle.

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