The São Paulo research institute leading the charge toward a Brazilian vaccine

March was a torturous month for Brazil. The country registered almost 67,000 coronavirus deaths over the space of its 31 days, and short-term outlooks are worse still. But there was one announcement during the month that brought hope, when the São Paulo-based Butantan Biological Institute declared it had developed its own Covid-19 vaccine.

Vaccination efforts in Brazil have stuttered, and just over 2 percent of the population have received two doses of Covid-19 immunizers so far.

Therefore, the potential delivery of 40 million shots of the so-called “Butanvac” vaccine — providing it passes clinical trials — brings some relief to the country and reaffirms Butantan’s status as one of the country’s flagship scientific research centers.

One hundred twenty years before it administered Brazil’s first coronavirus vaccine, the Butantan Institute was set up in 1901 during an outbreak of bubonic plague, which reportedly arrived in the...