Realizing The Value Of Quantum Computing In Life Sciences

By Roger Frechette

Gartner predicts that by 2023, 20 percent of organizations will be budgeting for quantum computing projects (versus less than 1 percent today). In the life sciences sector, it holds great potential for transforming data-heavy processes, from accelerating drug discovery to simulating clinical trials, and is one of the key technological areas we predict will impact life sciences for the better in our recent report, 2030 — Life Sciences And Health Go Digital.

While traditional computers encode data in “bits” — measurements that are either one or zero — quantum computers use “qubits.” These can be both one and zero simultaneously, or somewhere in between, allowing a quantum computer to consider all possible combinations of a situation at once, rather than testing each individually until all are ruled out.