Roche strikes quantum computing deal to develop early-stage Alzheimer’s drugs with CQC

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Swiss pharma giant Roche is to develop quantum algorithms to help it discover and develop early-stage drugs as part of a deal with Cambridge Quantum Computing (CQC).The company is planning to use CQC’s quantum chemistry platform, EUMEN, to design and implement noisy-intermediate-scale-quantum (NISQ) algorithms for early-stage drug discovery, particularly for the treatment of Alzheimer’s Disease.An early step in the fight against dementiaWhile the CQC deal will be focused on speeding up the discovery process for drugs to help treat Alzheimer’s, it will likely be expanded in scope should it prove successful.“For many years quantum computing has held out great promise for discovering new therapeutics that aid humanity in fighting some of the most devastating and damaging diseases. We are pleased that due to the careful and pioneering efforts...

Roche taps into quantum computing software for Alzheimer’s disease research

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Alzheimer’s disease has proven to be stubbornly difficult to unravel, but Roche aims to tap into a new tool that promises to accelerate the process: the quantum computer.  Through a multi-year partnership with the U.K.’s Cambridge Quantum Computing, the Swiss drugmaker’s task force plans to explore the nascent technology’s potential for designing and delivering new therapeutic compounds.  The partnership follows a similar endeavor launched earlier this year between Google and Boehringer Ingelheim, which plans to staff its own quantum laboratory as part of the Big Pharma’s digital transformation. Google has also been developing its own quantum hardware, in the Sycamore processor, which it says has outperformed so-called “classical” supercomputers. While typical machines use the binary system of 1s and 0s to solve...