Pharmaceutical companies in New Jersey: the plants, the headquarters and how to check them

This report is for people looking for New Jersey drugmakers: job seekers deciding where to apply, suppliers and contract partners vetting a customer, and B2B sellers building a territory. It counts the plants from Census data, the registered sites from FDA's own file, and the headquarters from each company's 10-K, then shows how to check any one company and how to prospect the market.

How many pharmaceutical companies are in New Jersey

US Census Bureau County Business Patterns (CBP) 2023, NAICS 3254 (Pharmaceutical and Medicine Manufacturing), New Jersey:

CBP counts establishments with paid employees, not companies, and it leaves out the self-employed. One drugmaker can run several establishments. The code covers places that make medicines, so it misses much of what New Jersey is known for. In the same 2023 data the state also had 596 drug wholesale establishments (NAICS 424210) with 51,108 employees, and 167 biotechnology R&D establishments (NAICS 541714) with 10,031. Corporate head offices are usually classed as managing offices (NAICS 551114), which the Census Bureau doesn't break out by industry.

Size and type of plant

The Census Bureau doesn't publish the 500 to 999 cell for New Jersey; the 2 is the total less the published classes. Just under half the establishments (98) have fewer than 20 employees, 55 have 20 to 99 and 44 have 100 or more. By six-digit code, 125 make finished dose pharmaceuticals (325412, 10,858 employees), 35 make medicinal chemicals and botanicals (325411, 1,871), 22 make biologics such as vaccines and blood products (325414, 2,442) and 15 make in-vitro diagnostic substances (325413, 4,440).

Where the plants are

Middlesex and Somerset together have 58% of the state's jobs in the industry. Somerset has fewer plants than Bergen but nearly three times the employees, so its sites are larger.

What FDA's registration file adds

Establishments that manufacture, prepare, propagate, compound or process drugs for the US market register with FDA and renew every year, and FDA publishes the list as the Drug Establishments Current Registration Site (DECRS), updated each business day. Our count of the download on 30 October 2026:

The towns with the most registrations are Cranbury (21), Fairfield (17), Somerset (14), Piscataway (14) and East Windsor (10). Registrants include Janssen Pharmaceuticals (Raritan), Celgene Corporation (Summit), Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation (Morris Plains), Teva Pharmaceuticals USA (Fairfield), Amneal Pharmaceuticals (Branchburg and Piscataway), WuXi Biologics USA (Cranbury), Tris Pharma (Monmouth Junction) and Hikma Pharmaceuticals USA (Cherry Hill). DECRS leaves out wholesale distributors and outsourcing facilities, and a registration is a filing by the company, not an FDA approval or inspection result.

Public drugmakers headquartered in New Jersey

SEC EDGAR shows 46 listed companies in SIC codes 2833 to 2836 with a New Jersey business address. We checked the largest in their latest 10-K:

EDGAR also lists ANI Pharmaceuticals at a Princeton address, but its 10-K cover gives Baudette, Minnesota, so it's left out; so is a cannabis operator coded 2833. The filings also show where the big groups work in the state: Merck's 10-K says its corporate headquarters, a principal US research facility and the head office of its manufacturing operations are in Rahway, and AbbVie's lists a significant manufacturing site and R&D in Branchburg and R&D in Madison. For how these companies rank worldwide, see the largest pharmaceutical companies.

How to check a New Jersey drug company

1. Look it up in DECRS. Search the firm name on FDA's site, or filter the download by city, to see which operations each site registered.
2. Check the state registration. New Jersey's Department of Health requires registration of any business that "distributes prescription or non-prescription drugs or medical devices" under N.J.S.A. 24:6B and N.J.A.C. 8:21-3A. The fee is $200 for one location or $500 for two or more; registrations expire on 31 January and renewals are due by 31 December. In-state facilities are inspected. Verify a registration on the state's facility license lookup.
3. Read the inspection record. FDA's Data Dashboard lists inspections, warning letters and recalls by firm.
4. Controlled substances need a separate registration with the New Jersey Drug Control Unit.

For job seekers, the same checks tell you which sites make product and which are offices, and the 10-K headcounts tell you how much of each employer's workforce is in the US.

Selling to New Jersey drugmakers

The market splits four ways, and each buys differently:

At companies under 20 employees, the founder or head of operations signs. Between 20 and 99, the site or quality manager decides with a finance check. Above 100, expect supplier qualification and a quality agreement before a first order. Industry groups worth joining for introductions are BioNJ, which publishes a member directory, and the Healthcare Institute of New Jersey; Choose New Jersey works with companies expanding into the state.

Worked example: a testing lab

Illustrative example. The company and its rates are invented; the counts come from CBP 2023.

Raritan Assay Labs (raritanassay.example) runs microbiology and stability testing and wants five new site customers.

1. Size the area. Middlesex (59) and Somerset (23) have 82 establishments.
2. Keep the ones big enough to outsource. Statewide, 99 of 197 establishments (50%) have 20 or more employees, so expect about 41 in the two counties.
3. Do the arithmetic. Reaching the quality lead at 60% of 41 sites gives 25 conversations. If one in five leads to a trial batch, that's 5, and if 2 become regular customers at $60,000 a year, $120,000 of new revenue.

Matching each site to its quality lead is the slow part; Bebop researches each account in a list and suggests who to contact.

Subject: Overflow testing for [site name]

Hi [first name],

[Company] registered [operation, for example API manufacturing] at the [town] site with FDA this year.

When release testing backs up, quality teams in New Jersey often tell us the lab, not the line, sets the ship date.

We run microbiology and stability testing ten miles from your site, with results in [number] days. Would a 15-minute call next week help you decide whether we'd be useful as a backup lab?

[Your name]
[Phone number]

Next step: compare New Jersey with its neighbor in the Philadelphia pharmaceutical market report.