Merck KGaA in Darmstadt, Germany is one of the world’s largest chemical companies and has an active quantum research efforts ongoing. They have partnered with several quantum companies already including a partnership with Multiverse to explore foreign exchange optimization and another one with Pasqal to look at the potential impacts of climate change. The QuPharma consortium was formed in 2021 with funding of a £6.8 million ($9M USD) from Innovate UK to build a commercially scalable application-specific quantum computer designed to tackle prohibitively high costs within pharmaceutical drug development. It is led by SEEQC with additional partners including Riverlane, Oxford Instruments, the University of Oxford, Medicines Discovery Catapult, and members from the Science and Technology Facilities Council, including the UK’s National Quantum Computing Centre and the Hartree Centre. The specific problem that BASF will research with this group involves the quantum simulation of dissolved catalysts also known as homogeneous catalysis. Additional information about this new collaboration can be found in a press release provided by SEEQC which can be accessed here.
February 9, 2023