The italian biotech industry, by the end of 2009, is constantly growing and a census revealed that there were 319 companies of which 187 are “pure biotech”, according to Ernst & Young definition, micro (41%) or small (27%) companies. 53% of this companies are originated with the start-up mechanism and 24% as academic spin-offs. Of the 319 companies involved with the research and development in the biotech sector, 197 (61%) are focused on red biotech, 21 (7%) in white biotech, 42 (13%) in green biotech and the remaining 19 (6%) is made up of companies involved in more than an application field. For what concerns the financial and economical size related to the biotech products, the total turnover is € 6.8 bilion and the pure biotech companies contribute with 11%. From the report, the big companies, with more than 250 employees, are responsible for 84% of the total turnover, while the small companies produce less than 1% of the turnover. Concerning the "pure biotech" companies, more of the 80% of the sample turned out to be a micro or small company. The big companies, which generate 74% of the entire turnover, are only 3%.