NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ—Radical changes in how the pharmaceutical industry develops new drugs are having a significant impact on the kind of office space drug companies will use in the next several decades, James W. Hughes, dean of the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, an expert on demographic changes in the office market, tells GlobeSt.com exclusively.

Hughes, co-author with Rutgers Prof. Joseph Seneca of the Rutgers Regional Report, “Reinventing the New Jersey Economy: New Metropolitan and Regional Employment Dynamics,” tells Globe Street.com that New Jersey is likely to see some continued demand for administrative office space for corporate headquarters, but that research facilities are more likely to be situated near university centers of excellence in the life sciences, making cities like Boston, Cambridge, and San Francisco more attractive.

Hughes believes the market is likely to see more transactions like the sale of the Novartis research campus in Suffern, NY, reported last week by Globe Street.com. The old model in mergers usually meant that companies consolidated in the facilities of the acquiring company, but changes in the pharmaceutical industry's approach to research mean that is not always going to be the case, says Hughes.