As published on Globe Newswire.

Rigetti UK announced today it will partner with Riverlane and Astex Pharmaceuticals to develop an integrated application for simulating molecular systems using Rigetti Quantum Cloud Services, paving the way for a commercial application that could transform drug discovery in pharmaceutical R&D. 

“Our consortium brings together a complete quantum supply chain — from hardware to end-user — allowing us to develop a tailor-made solution to address a problem of real value to the pharmaceutical sector,” says Mandy Birch, SVP of Technology Partnerships at Rigetti. “This project lays the groundwork for the commercial application of Rigetti Quantum Cloud Services in the pharmaceutical industry.”

The average cost of discovering a new drug and bringing it to market has tripled since 2010, reaching almost $3bn in 2018. However, soaring R&D costs have not translated into shorter times to market or higher numbers of newly approved drugs.

“We want to solve this problem by using quantum computers to speed up the process of drug discovery,” says Chris Murray, SVP Discovery Technology at Astex. “Quantum computers provide a fundamentally different approach that could enable pharmaceutical companies to identify, screen, and simulate new drugs rather than using expensive, trial-and-error approaches in the laboratory.”

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