Shionogi Wins NEDO Award for Quantum-Assisted Drug Discovery

Insider Brief

• D-Wave customer Shionogi has won first place in the Quality of Life category of Japan’s NEDO Challenge for research applying quantum computing to drug discovery.
• A peer-reviewed study published in Scientific Reports in July 2026 found that a quantum-assisted generative AI model produced 97% chemically valid molecular representations, compared with 73% for an equivalent classical model.
• The ¥40 million award will support Shionogi’s continued research combining quantum computing and classical high-performance computing to generate and evaluate potential drug candidates.

PRESS RELEASE — D-Wave Quantum Inc. (NASDAQ: QBTS) (“D-Wave“), the only dual-platform quantum computing company providing both annealing and gate-model systems, software and services, today announced that its customer Shionogi & Co., Ltd. (“Shionogi”) has won first place in the Quality of Life (QOL) category of the NEDO Challenge for its research exploring the application of quantum computing to drug discovery. The award-winning research includes, among other achievements, a peer-reviewed study published in Scientific Reports in July 2026, which integrated D-Wave annealing quantum computing technology into a generative AI model for molecular design.