In recent years health has become a paramount global concern with the COVID19 pandemic bringing medical research and innovation to the forefront of public consciousness. As of August 28, 2024 COVID19 has become the most studied disease in human history with an astounding 438,953 publications dedicated to understanding and combating it. This heightened focus on health has also permeated the world of quantum technology where researchers and companies are exploring how quantum computing can revolutionize various aspects of healthcare particularly in the field of drug discovery.
Quantum Chemistry: A GameChanger in Drug Discovery
One of the most promising applications of quantum computing in healthcare is in the realm of quantum chemistry, which has the potential to dramatically accelerate and improve the drug discovery process. Traditional drug development is an incredibly expensive and timeconsuming endeavor with pharmaceutical companies investing an average of $14 billion and 1015 years to bring a single drug to market. To put this in perspective SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket took just five years and approximately $400 million to develop a fraction of the time and cost required for a new drug.
The exorbitant costs and lengthy timelines of drug development have led to the phenomenon of “orphan drugs,” where less than 10% of potential treatments actually reach the market and become available to patients. This is where quantum computing specifically quantum chemistry comes into play.
By leveraging quantum computers to simulate molecular energies before conducting expensive laboratory work, researchers can potentially reduce both the time and cost of drug development significantly. For example in a 2020 presentation by Arman Zaribafiyan former CEO of Good Chemistry now acquired by SandboxAQ, it was shown that 6085% fewer qubits were required to accurately mimic the total energies of hydrocarbons compared to classical computing methods. This efficiency is particularly crucial in our current era of Noisy IntermediateScale Quantum NISQ computers where the number of available qubits is limited.
DWave known for its quantum annealing architecture, has been exploring optimization problems in drug discovery.
1QBit a quantum algorithms company spun out Good Chemistry in 2022 to focus specifically on quantum chemistry applications.
SandboxAQ, which acquired Good Chemistry in January 2024 now has a dedicated Life Sciences division exploring quantum applications in healthcare.
These developments underscore the growing recognition of quantum chemistry as a lucrative and highimpact subfield within quantum computing. While many current demonstrations may still be considered “toy problems” they represent serious steps toward revolutionizing drug discovery and development.
One of the key quantum algorithms being used in this field is the Variational Quantum Eigensolver VQE, a hybrid classicalquantum algorithm that can determine the groundstate energy of molecules. This approach pioneered by researchers like Kandala et al. in 2017 has shown promise in reducing the computational resources required for molecular simulations, making it wellsuited for today’s NISQera quantum computers.
As we continue to advance quantum computing technologies and algorithms the potential for quantum chemistry to transform drug discovery becomes increasingly tangible. By enabling more accurate and efficient molecular simulations quantum computing could help pharmaceutical companies identify promising drug candidates faster and at a lower cost, ultimately accelerating the delivery of new treatments to patients in need.
