More than 30 years ago, a small group of biotech and biopharma leaders came to me with a simple but ambitious idea: create an association that could help New Jersey’s life sciences industry grow and thrive by ensuring the right policies were in place. Together, we built BioNJ with a clear purpose: to champion innovation, support patients and ensure New Jersey remained a place where discovery could flourish.
Today, that vision is not just alive, it is thriving.
New Jersey is home to eight of the world’s top 20 biopharmaceutical companies. In 2024 alone, those firms generated more than $375 billion in global revenue and advanced hundreds of drug candidates aimed at improving and saving lives. Across the state, more than 5,600 life sciences establishments employ a highly skilled workforce of 76,000.
Life sciences is not simply part of New Jersey’s economy; it is a cornerstone. The sector contributes $121 billion to the state’s GDP — 7.8 percent of the economy, more than twice the national average — making New Jersey the second-largest biopharma hub in the nation.
That scale and impact extend far beyond global headquarters. New Jersey is also home to a deeply interconnected biopharma ecosystem that includes innovative startups, growing midcap companies, leading research universities, a robust and expanding CDMO network, advanced manufacturers and specialized service providers. Together, they form a continuum for discovery, development and delivery. Between 2020-24, New Jersey-based companies earned 136 FDA approvals — roughly 30 percent of all U.S. approvals during that period.
But leadership is never guaranteed. It must be protected, strengthened and renewed.
Smart, consistent public policy has been essential to New Jersey’s success. R&D tax credits, the Technology Business Tax Certificate Transfer program, and other N.J. Economic Development Authority and Commission on Science Innovation and Technology initiatives have helped companies of all sizes to innovate, grow and stay rooted in the Garden State.
Sustaining a vibrant life sciences ecosystem in New Jersey requires cultivating the next generation of industry leaders. Small biotech start-ups play a critical role in advancing the field, often developing the novel therapies that Patients across the U.S. rely on. According to a 2022 report, emerging biopharma companies were responsible for 65 percent of all molecules in the R&D pipeline, underscoring their outsized impact on delivering breakthrough treatments.
The state has also taken decisive steps to strengthen manufacturing and supply chain resilience. The $500 million Next New Jersey Manufacturing Program, launched in 2025, is designed to incentivize advanced manufacturing investments and ensure that innovation discovered here can also be produced here. In addition, New Jersey’s research and development tax credit program supports corporations in pursuing new ideas and advancing innovation across the industry.
We are living in an extraordinary moment for medical innovation. New therapies are emerging at record pace, offering new hope to patients facing cancer, rare diseases, and chronic conditions. At the same time, biopharmaceutical companies are investing billions to expand U.S. manufacturing and reinforce domestic supply chains – intensifying competition and the race to be the nation’s leading life sciences hub.
States from Illinois to North Carolina to Virginia are investing aggressively to attract life sciences companies. New Jersey cannot afford to stand still. Maintaining our leadership means advancing policy solutions that support both established industry leaders and the next generation of innovators.
Detailed in a new BioNJ white paper, the Garden State must leverage its existing strengths in order to take on emerging obstacles that lay in the path to strengthening the State’s leadership in life sciences.
With sustained, forward-looking policy support, New Jersey can build on its legacy of discovery to lead the next era of life sciences innovation — driving economic growth, creating high-quality jobs and delivering hope to patients everywhere.
Debbie Hart is the founding president and CEO of BioNJ, the life sciences trade association for New Jersey – and the chair of the New Jersey Commission on Science, Innovation and Technology.
