What Quantum Computing Can Do for Drug Research and Supply Chains

Quantum computing has captured the interest of many industries, notably pharmaceuticals and supply chain management.

But why are these industries exploring quantum computing instead of traditional supercomputing?

Because quantum computing, based on the behavior of matter at the atomic and subatomic levels, is more powerful. Quantum computers can perform calculations beyond the binary 1 or 0, and consider the tiniest element of an object – the electron.

Compared to “classical” computers, quantum computers can do many things simultaneously at a much lower calculation time.

In 2019, Google said its quantum processor, Sycamore, had solved a complex calculation in 200 seconds. It would otherwise have taken 10,000 years to complete on the best supercomputer.

How Can Quantum Computing Help The Pharma Industry?

Let’s consider the different phases of drug discovery.

• Target identification and validation
• Lead optimization
• Candidate selection

These phases making up the drug discovery process take 3-6 years, and not all targeted compounds move through the clinical trial phases before approval for market release.

For a single project, more than 1,000,000 compounds can be screened in the initial phase and reduced to just hundreds of compounds in the lead optimization process to end up in the pre-clinical phase with one or two candidate molecules.

On top of that, we need to consider that only 10% of such projects make it to phase 1 clinical trial, with the risk of failure at every phase.

The overall drug discovery and development process can take up to 10 years. And considering that the speed of the quantum computing algorithms is hundreds of years faster than the standard technology in use, deploying a quantum algorithm on millions of compounds would significantly reduce the discovery processes.

Of course, the real-time reduction cannot be assumed but it is certain that a quantum computing-based approach will help increase the number of molecules synthesized and compress the time it takes to bring the drug to the market.

Overall, in the discovery phase, the screening time and compound selection would reduce whilst the accuracy would increase given the amount of data analyzed through quantum computing systems.

Also read: How Edge Computing and 5G Are Powering Supply Chain Operations

What Are The Benefits of Drug Development Through Quantum Computing?

To answer this, let’s consider the main development phases that rely on technology:

• Patient identification and stratifications
• Pharmacogenetic modeling
• Site selection
• Trials and observational studies
• Side-effect analysis

Patient identification and stratification mean the selection of eligible patients for clinical trials. In part, this happens through the analysis of medical records.

Traditionally, this procedure was done manually.

But nowadays, given the vast volume of patient and electronic health care data, the procedure has been replaced by digital analysis and specialized platforms. Quantum computing-based patient data screening would only make the process faster.

Pharmacogenetics is the study of how genes affect the body’s response to certain medicines. Here, quantum computing could assess the genetic variants. As for discovery predictions, this would be faster and more accurate.

Accurately projecting the outcomes for a diverse patient population is used to obtain a potentially effective drug or medical device.

In theory, quantum computers have computational power greater than conventional computers and could become part of clinical trial set-ups too.

The amount of available data would be ideal for quantum computing algorithms. These could be used in statistical methods of trial design, external control arms and any sort of pre- or post-authorization real-world data study for accurate data analysis and comparison.

Also read: How the Oil & Gas Sector Can Leverage Edge AI

How Will Quantum Computing Work in Supply Chains?

Quantum computing can also be applied to any product creation process — from consumer goods to complex machinery — given its higher accuracy and reduced research needs.

Quantum computing can also improve logistics and supply chain operations for faster delivery, route optimization, business planning and efficient warehousing.

For example, it can solve issues related to scheduling deliveries and routing, whilst considering all possible traffic simulations across a wide geographical area regardless of the vehicle. This translates into quickly available routing design and deep analysis of multiple factors which reduces lead times and costs associated with delivery.

The reduced delivery time also means lower cost and carbon footprint. More packages delivered at the same time means more space in the warehouse and less cost associated with the storage.

Quantum computing would also help manufacturing processes by enabling long-term scheduling and more efficient forecasting based on the availability of materials.

It could be a part of the application in markets, stock, financial modeling, automation, AI and ML, cybersecurity and cryptography and even weather forecasting.

What Are the Shortcomings of Quantum Computing?

However, there is a flip side too. For quantum computing-based technology utilization, current encryption mechanisms could become ineffective and encrypted information easily be accessed.

Moreover, it seems that the unit on which the quantum computers operate is highly sensitive to external factors such as electromagnetic waves, vibrations, or heat and can easily result in algorithms errors.

Conclusion

Given its promise, there is understandably a rush amongst technology companies, universities, and startups in putting together teams and investments to apply quantum computing to real-world problems. But it is crucial to ensure that the efforts include adequate measures to tackle the shortcomings of quantum computing too.

Author: Klaudia Budaj

Sources and references :

blog.sciencemuseum.org.uk/quantum-computing-what-who-how-and-when/

www.livescience.com/google-hits-quantum-supremacy.html

sfmagazine.com/technotes/december-2020-quantum-computing-in-2021/

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3058157/

www.iconplc.com/insights/blog/2018/05/28/icon-explores-quantum-computing/index.xml

supplychaindigital.com/logistics-1/supply-chain-quantum-computing-conundrum