Do not expect to find benches here equipped with microscopes, beakers, Erlenmeyer flasks or other devices worthy of the kit of the perfect little chemist. In the Paris offices of Qubit Pharmaceuticals, a young start-up launched in 2020 and specializing in simulation and computer-aided molecular modeling, researchers busy discovering new drugs manipulate data rather than test tubes.
Resulting from the spin-off of technologies developed by scientists from Sorbonne University, CNRS, CNAM, Washington University in Saint-Louis and the University of Texas at Austin, the young shoot, installed in the nursery of enterprises of the Cochin hospital, aims thanks to its software platform to reduce by half the time of discovery of new remedies and to divide by ten the cost of this research. A bet that could, if it succeeds, revolutionize the sector: it now takes on average more than ten years and count at least one billion euros to develop a drug.
Finding drugs through the power of computing? The idea is not new but, on the strength of the progress made in recent years, it is attracting more and more pharmaceutical manufacturers. The American laboratory Pfizer thus used a supercomputer – a computer equipped with extremely powerful calculation and data processing capacities – to develop Paxlovid, its antiviral treatment against Covid-19. Sanofi, Roche and Bristol Myers Squibb have recently entered into partnerships with start-ups specializing in this niche, such as Exscientia, BenevolentAI and the French company Owkin. An effervescence from which Qubit Pharmaceuticals hopes to benefit.
Fundraising of 16.1 million euros
The start-up, which has just announced a fundraising of 16.1 million euros, relies on quantum physics to differentiate itself from its competitors. Its software platform was thus designed without the simplifications of calculations traditionally used since the 1980s because computers were not powerful enough at the time. A paradigm shift that allows it to stand ready for the quantum shift, “as soon as the use of quantum computers in an industrial way will be possible”, explains Robert Marino, its president. Within three years, Qubit hopes to achieve up to 20% of its calculations thanks to quantum. A project that caught the eye of Octave Klaba, the founder of the French unicorn OVH, who invested personally in the company.
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