Google has announced a major advance in quantum computing that could redefine how scientists model molecules and design new drugs.
The company’s new Willow quantum chip has achieved something never done before – it successfully ran an algorithm that’s faster than the world’s most powerful supercomputers and produced results that can be checked and confirmed on another quantum machine.
“Imagine you’re trying to find a lost ship at the bottom of the ocean,” said Google in a press release. “Sonar technology might give you a blurry shape and tell you, “There’s a shipwreck down there.” But what if you could not only find the ship but also read the nameplate on its hull?”
Google’s breakthrough
At the centre of this breakthrough is an algorithm called Quantum Echoes, which is capable of simulating complex quantum mechanical interactions 13,000 times faster than current classical methods.
Unlike prior ‘quantum supremacy’ claims, Google’s new results were peer-reviewed and independently verified – helping to establish a reproducible benchmark for future quantum computation. According to the release: “This is the first time in history that any quantum computer has successfully run a verifiable algorithm that surpasses the ability of supercomputers.”
Why pharma should care
The potential of this technology could be transformative for life sciences and the pharmaceutical industry. In collaboration with the University of California, Google used the Quantum Echoes algorithm to study the structure of two small molecules. The computer’s results matched those from traditional nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques and even revealed additional details that NMR alone couldn’t detect.
According to Google, this technique functions as a kind of “molecular ruler”, offering the precision to explore how atoms interact across longer distances. In drug discovery, this capability could sharpen understanding of how candidate molecules bind to biological targets or enable more accurate modelling of dynamics that have been long-standing challenges for classical simulation.
Welcoming in a new era
This week’s announcement demonstrates how quantum computing is moving from theory to real-world application. This could mean faster, more precise ways to model molecules and design drugs. If progress continues at the current pace, quantum technology could soon become a cornerstone of scientific discovery.
