Drug Discovery

Know how a molecule behaves before you make it.

How a molecule absorbs light, binds, and rearranges is where today's methods lose accuracy, and where good candidates get missed. Xanadu builds quantum algorithms to simulate that behavior, so more of the screening happens on the science.

The Challenge

Classical simulation can't keep up with drug design.

The properties that decide efficacy and selectivity, like how a molecule absorbs light or how its electrons rearrange in an excited state, are the hardest for today's methods to predict. Getting them wrong means failed candidates and slow, costly clinical development.

Quantum simulation models these dynamics natively, and Xanadu's resource estimates show real photosensitizers are reachable on near-term fault-tolerant hardware.

How Xanadu Helps

Quantum algorithms that simulate what classical methods can't

  • Better cancer therapies

    Cancer therapy needs precision for best outcomes. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) activates drugs with light, targeting tumors directly while reducing side effects.

    This work enables simulation-driven design of next-generation photosensitizers, guiding the development of safer and more targeted cancer treatments without relying on trial and error.

  • Enhanced chemical detection for manufacturing

    Near-infrared spectroscopy is a key method for real-time chemical detection. It promises cheap and reliable quality assurance, such as in pharmaceuticals.

    Efficient computation of high-quality near-infrared spectra for chemometric modeling can unlock cheap, reliable, non-invasive chemical characterization, enabling broad industrial process control.

  • Molecular properties from first principles

    Docking and lead optimization rely on electronic-structure properties that today's methods only approximate, which limits how far you can trust the results.

    Xanadu's estimates map real drug-relevant systems (11–45 spatial orbitals) to concrete qubit and gate budgets, so you can plan quantum-accurate property calculations around the hardware timeline.

Agnostiq
AMD
AWS
BMO
BMW
Fidelity Center for Applied Technology
Lockheed Martin
Menten AI
Mitsubishi Chemical Group
NVIDIA
QunaSys
Rolls-Royce
Scotiabank
Toyota
Volkswagen

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Advance drug discovery with Xanadu

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