Riverlane announces the possibility for Quantum Drug Simulation Time to be reduced from 1,000 years to a few days only

Riverlane, the quantum engineering company known for its development of the world’s first operating system for error-corrected quantum computing, has announced the publication of its peer-reviewed research paper on potentially improving drug discovery and development through quantum computing; the paper was published by the Journal of Chemical Theory and Computation.

The study was written by Riverlane’s interdisciplinary Discover team composed of leading biochemists, quantum scientists, and information theorists. It describes how breakthroughs in quantum algorithms have drastically decreased the amount of time and effort required for researchers to produce useful results. The study, which focuses on the cancer growth inhibitor Ibrutinib, provides estimates of simulating progressively bigger embedding zones. As estimated by Riverlane team, the resources needed to execute these calculations in active areas of 50 orbitals and electrons have decreased from over 1,000 years to just a few days.

This highlights quantum’s potential to alter the pharmaceutical sector. For example, quantum could aid in the selection of prospective medications for specific treatment by determining which are more likely to be effective. The pipeline from candidate drug to the product can take up to ten years, and shortening this time frame has the potential to save billions of dollars in expenditures. Giving Boston Consulting Group estimates that quantum technology might contribute up to $80 billion to the industry’s value by 2040.

Critically, these resource savings were only attainable with an error-corrected design. While future quantum computers will be able to recreate nature on a molecular level, high error rates are today’s challenge. Hence, why Riverlane is now developing the world’s best error-correction team to help address the issue all throughout the quantum computing system.

See more about the news here.