The Ford Taurus of Computer-Assisted Drug Design
by Corin Wagen · Mar 10, 2025
In January, Hunterbrook (the media outlet that's also a hedge fund) put out a very interesting article on Schrödinger. There were a lot of good quotes in the piece, but I found the following exchange particularly telling (emphasis added):
[David] Cerutti told Hunterbrook that the increasing availability of GPUs would likely lead to broader application of Schrödinger’s compute-intensive calculations — but also broader access from competitors developing open-source models for similar applications.
“It’s poised to be a pretty strong competitor to Schrödinger,” said Cerutti, speaking of a tool in development that he expects will be more affordable for many users.
Another former Schrödinger scientist was not concerned about potential competitors to Schrödinger’s platform. They texted that comparing a certain new computational design program to Schrödinger “is like comparing a Ford Taurus to a Ferrari.”
This quote suggests that Schrödinger sees themselves as selling Ferraris, while their competitors are selling Fords. Ferraris are undeniably very cool cars, marvels of engineering and design. In contrast, a Ford Taurus is, frankly, a pretty boring car. You don't feel particularly cool driving a Ford Taurus, nor are you impressed when your friend pulls up in a Taurus. (My parents drove a Ford Taurus when I was a kid.)
Yet despite all this, the Ford Taurus is a much more practical car than a Ferrari. The Ford Taurus is cheap, easy to drive, and reliable. The Ford Taurus gets you where you want to go. At Rowan, we're proud to be building a Ford Taurus for computer-assisted drug design.
Building a Ford Taurus is very different than building a Ferrari. The whole point of a Ferrari is that it's exclusive. Most people can never afford a Ferrari, so owning one sets you apart from the masses. The Ferrari is a luxury product, like a Birkin bag or a Patek Philippe—and in luxury, exclusivity is everything.
Not so for the Ford Taurus. Owning a Ford Taurus doesn't make you special, nor do people dream about owning a Taurus one day. But hundreds of millions of people drive cars like the Ford Taurus because the car just works: it does what you need it to, and it doesn't overcomplicate things or get in your way. If you're picking up kids from soccer practice, dropping someone off at the airport, or going to Costco, the Ford Taurus is the car for you. It's a car that doesn't demand your attention, but rather frees you up to focus on the rest of your life.
This is our goal at Rowan. We want to build design and simulation software for chemists that's so easy to use that you don't have to think about it. Software that's robust and reliable, so that you never have to worry about file formats, unit conversions, or scaling constants. Software that's lightning-fast to run, so you don't have to reorganize your schedule around your computations. Software that doesn't demand bespoke expertise, so you can focus on being an expert at your research instead.
Building the Ford Taurus of computer-assisted drug design is a big task, and one that we're just getting started on. If you're interested in partnering with us to help with this mission, let us know! We're always looking to talk with drug designers and learn what we can do better.
