Quantum computing in the pharmaceutical industries – summary of workshop

Access the workshop summary following a day of discussion around quantum computing and its potential applications

A workshop supported by KTN, Oxford Quantum Circuits, Riverlane and Isaac Newton Institute was held on 14th March 2019 to bring together experts from the fields of quantum computing and the pharmaceutical industry.

The aims of the day included understanding:
‚óè the stages of drug development, where computational chemistry methods are used and
their limitations
‚óè methods for performing computational chemistry calculations on a classical computer
and how well they perform
‚óè the types of problems to which quantum computers are well suited and how these relate
to the pharmaceutical industry
‚óè the current state of quantum computers and time scales on which they are developing

Both quantum computer hardware and software are improving at exponential rate and participants were keen to understand if that advantage could be applied to the pharmaceutical sector.

There was an acknowledgement that it is critically important to develop a quantum ecosystem and to get industry quantum ready.  There is a need to develop cross-disciplinary skills and to develop end-use applications.

Notes from the day can be accessed here.  For further discussions around quantum computing, contact Bob Cockshott, KTN’s Knowledge Transfer Manager for Quantum Technologies.