Biotechnology has been identified as one of the strategic areas in the current innovation and productive policies of Uruguay. In line with what happens worldwide, policy documents highlight the growing importance of these technologies and their potential transversal impact in several productive areas. There are indicators and systematic data sources about research skills in biotech - research groups, number of researchers, institutions and infrastructure - accumulated in several research institutes and universities. However there is scarce information about biotechnology in firms, which are a key agent of any innovation system. This paper presents evidence about biotechnology activities in Uruguayan firm between 2010 and 2012, surveyed through methodologies that allow international comparison. Based on the results of this survey this paper discusses the growth path of biotech firms in Uruguay. The conclusions show that the gathered evidence, offers good indications about an ongoing process of resource based growth path. However, it is not possible to conclude if it is a critical mass building process or a set of encapsulated individual firms’ paths.
