The CF Foundation "funded early research on four key medicines for the genetic disease," says the story. "Those drugs and better care raised average life expectancy from 10 years in the 1960s to 41 today."

With significant funding from the Foundation, Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. spent 11 years screening 200,000 possibilities before finding a molecule that eventually became Kalyedco, according to the piece. In a companion video, Paul Negulescu, senior vice president for research at Vertex, says of the Foundation, "Their initial support of our research really was critical in getting us to the point where we were finding small molecules to treat the underlying defect."

Watch the video and read the full story here.