- Presence of Major Pharma Companies: Immigrant and foreign national’s workers were needed heavily when multinational pharmaceutical and biotech firms that had their headquarters, manufacturing, and sales all concentrated in one place. For instance, New Jersey provides the venue to host the domestic base of the Big Pharma industry.

- Academic Research Clusters: Proximity to large universities with medical schools, highly specialized research institutes interested in leading innovative biomedical research, training of talented workforce and fostering innovation. The Boston/Cambridge metropolitan area with all its academic institutions specializing in life sciences is a hub of the Massachusetts innovation ecosystem.

- Access to Funding: Access to public and private-sector funding via government grants, venture capital investments, and organized networks that help to commercialize research breakthroughs. Life Sciences hubs exploit local economic development as a funding mechanism.

- Skilled Workforce: A highly talented, trained, and specialized workforce with widespread abilities including the drug discovery processes, preclinical and clinical research, regulatory affairs, manufacturing as well as commercialization. The Basel area in Switzerland is known to have a sizable number of highly trained professionals in the life science sector compare to other regions in the world.

- Business Environment: The infrastructure should be comprehensive including basic resources, connections, IP protection and favorable environment promoting the free flow of ideas into finished products. Singapore, Ireland are just the two examples of the countries that have built strong and competitive pharmaceutical and biotech ecosystems.

To conclude, pharmaceutical hubs are based on the market network theory which focuses on the integration of scientific, commercial and human capital resources that are required to establish a sustainable economy for biopharmaceutical innovation and progress in a region. The partnership and the smooth exchange of information within the intellectual community (including financial investors, producers, educational establishments and talent) nurtures the creative advances of the hub.