Buoyed by block­buster Ver­tex pay­ments, the CF Foun­da­tion seeds new ad­vances with $500M fund

What does a large foun­da­tion do when they re­ceive a check for 10 times their an­nu­al rev­enue?

For five years now, the Cys­tic Fi­bro­sis Foun­da­tion has been a liv­ing ex­per­i­ment to that ques­tion. In 2014, the group saw its for­ay in­to ven­ture phil­an­thropy pay off with a $3.3 bil­lion check from Roy­al­ty Phar­ma for roy­al­ties to Ver­tex’s CF treat­ments. (The Eli Lil­ly heiress-en­dowed Po­et­ry Foun­da­tion has been a small­er long-run­ning ex­per­i­ment in the same ques­tion, for the lit­er­ary phar­ma nerds out there.)

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