Read This: The second phase of the Institute (1930–1970) was greatly influenced by a series of authoritarian governments, the Second World War, the organization of its pharmacology and pathophysiology laboratories, and the arrival of many foreign researchers (including Henry Slotta from the University of Breslau, Germany, who discovered the female hormone progesterone and succeeded in isolating crotoxin, the toxic protein in rattlesnake venom) [5]. The first universities and agencies promoting research in Brazil (National Council for Scientific and Technological Development [CNPq] and Foundation for Research Support of the State of São Paulo [FAPESP]) were created in the 1930s. A period of crisis later befell the Butantan Institute between 1940 and 1960, with a lack of funding and successive ineffective administrations. The National Immunization Program, created by the federal government in 1973, enabled public producers of serums and vaccines to organize and modernize their laboratories and factories, and during the 1980s, large investments were made in the Butantan Institute and the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (FIOCRUZ) to achieve self-sufficiency in the production of vaccines and antibodies against venoms and toxins. During this period, the Butantan Foundation was created to facilitate the management of public resources, and the Biotechnology Center was established to develop new vaccines and serums. Two very successful developments can be cited for this period: the development of the hepatitis B vaccine and the modernization of the production processes for sera against poisons and toxins. This period also saw the initiation of partnerships with the private sector, including technology transfers for the production of influenza vaccine at Sanofi Pasteur. Regulatory frameworks for public health were initiated in Brazil starting in the year 2000, but public laboratories did not adjust to these legislative mandates, and a scarcity of resources (due to national and international economic crises) handicapped the leading research and production institutes, including the Butantan Institute. A major fire in the zoological collections building in 2010 was a huge loss to the scientific community.
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