Instituto Butantan is a Brazilian biomedical research center affiliated to the São Paulo State governmental Secretary of Health. An outbreak of bubonic plague that spread out in the port of Santos in 1889, led the government to obtain the Butantan Farm, in order to establish a production lab of anti-plague serum, linked to the bacteriological Institute. (Nowadays known as Adolpho Lutz Institute)

This lab became an independent institution in February 1901, under the denomination of Instituto serumterapico (Serum therapy Institute), having as first director, Vital Brazil Mineiro da Campanha, specialized doctor focused on public health problems. The institute became internationally well-known, thanks to the idealism of Vital Brazil which besides producing sera and vaccines, also was concerned about developing researches. In 1914, the main office building was inaugurated, with the necessary rooms for building labs, in which a perfect match of production and research was established. 

The institute develops basic researches and studies, within the biology and biomedicine field, directly or indirectly related to public health. It produces vaccines and sera for prophylactic use and for wound bandaging. It performs scientific assignments in our country, as well as abroad. It contributes with the Health department and the Ministry of Health in the fight against epidemic outbreaks. It performs special courses and publications about its working fields that are offered to companies, students, military soldiers and to the population in general. Within the human resources formation, courses and trainees´ tasks are given to their experts and to the ones from other institutions as well.

Today, having as a target, the integrated and harmonic development of the scientific and technological research, the tasks performed and the quality of the immunobiological produced, are able to resemble the competence of their scientists and experts, who in the last 100 years have helped Butantan Institute to become well-known throughout the world.
The efficiency in the use of the budgetary and the extra budgetary resources and the reapplication of the resources followed-up by the  commercialization of serum and vaccines, have permitted the development of new initiative from Butantan Institute, integrating research, technological development, Immunobiological production and cultural diffusion.