In an industry dominated by experiment, the ability to simulate, optimize and orchestrate processes or portions thereof has the power to cut timelines, lower costs, and reduce the rate of failures. There are several opportunities to apply quantum computing across the entire pharma value chain – from the early stages of R&D to creating manufacturing capacity at scale and every step in between.

One of the clearest opportunities for quantum is in the discovery and optimization of drug molecules. The interactions of potential drug candidates with biological targets are fundamentally governed by quantum mechanics. As such, the ability to simulate nature with unprecedented accuracy and scale is a key driver of excitement about quantum computing in the life sciences industry.