Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Sells Drug Royalties for $3B
By David Risser and Kelly Gilblom
Bloomsberg Businessweek
November 19, 2014
The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation will sell royalties it gets from Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. for $3.3 billion to Royalty Pharma, taking a profit from charitable investments made to fight the fatal lung disease.
The transaction is part of a growing trend in philanthropy called mission investing. In mission investing, instead of giving research grants as charity, philanthropies act more like business partners and expect a share of profits stemming from their gift, according to Aaron Dorfman, executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy.
The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation “is a classic, perfect example of how it works when it works well,” Dorfman said by telephone. “There haven’t been huge financial successes like this one.”
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