In January 2012, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Kalydeco, the first drug to treat the underlying cause of cystic fibrosis, after just three months of review. It was one of the fastest approvals of a new medicine in the agency’s history. Vertex Pharmaceuticals, which discovered and developed the drug, priced Kalydeco at $294,000 a year, which made it one of the world’s most expensive medicines. The company also pledged to provide it free to any patient in the United States who is uninsured or whose insurance won’t cover it. Doctors and patients enthusiastically welcomed the drug because it offers life-saving health benefits and there is no other treatment. Insurers and governments readily paid the cost.

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Twitter and hashtags go hand-in-hand — you can't have a 140-character tweet without a # sign to get it trending.

But before it was a social-media tool, how did the # sign spend all of its time?

How can technology positively impact India and the world? That’s the question Google asked Indian non-profit organizations earlier this summer, and thousands of responses flooded in. A team of up to 160 Googlers got all those submissions down to 10 finalists, and now the Google Impact Challenge has chosen – after a day of pitching in Delhi last week – its three winners along with a “people’s choice” award.

Check out these awesome cliff jumping shots! Enjoy. Like and Share :)

In the last year I have lived in San Francisco, Toronto, New York City and Vancouver, where our team currently resides.

Our team comes from a small city in Canada, called Saskatoon, where startups are few and far between. Dealflow, angel investing, strategic partners, mentors and basic startup information are scarce. The angel investing group that once was has disbanded, and is just getting started again. The fabric and tools necessary to scale, be disruptive and understand the true ideology of what it takes to build a startup, dramatically pales in comparison to the ‘Valley’ and ‘Alleys’ of the world.

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Ohio State recently invested tens of millions of dollars into a venture capital firm, despite concern by university officials.

OSU invested roughly $50 million into Drive Capital, which was launched by Mark Kvamme earlier this year.

Drive Capital was co-founded by Kvamme and Chris Olsen. Both were previously partners at Sequoia Capital, a venture capital firm based in California that has backed companies such as Apple, Instagram and Google. Olsen is also a native of Cincinnati.

Total revenue for the Kansas Bioscience Authority dropped by 45 percent this fiscal year, and most of the loss was attributed to a decrease in state funding.

The Lawrence Journal-World reports (http://bit.ly/1aCYuri ) the KBA's latest financial report says state support went from $14 million in the 2012 fiscal year to $3.2 million in fiscal year 2013.

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As regular readers know, I keep an eye out for the ever-elusive "statistics on Kickstarter." More often than not Kickstarter stats come from data mined infographics cobbled together by clever citizens of the Internet.  But sometimes--like today--they come from Kickstarter's own blog.

New airline bag tags that can be programmed with a mobile phone could make those sticky strips of paper a thing of the past — and maybe even prevent a painful separation between you and your bag. Airlines around the globe are keen to dispense with the bar-coded thermal paper tags they print by the billions and loop onto your luggage.

It's typically not a great sign to see a small note tucked beneath your windshield wiper as your approach your parked car.

Because, truthfully, no one is making the effort to leave a note, unless they've got a serious bone to pick.

Kentucky is considering working with a venture capital fund for small business.

The Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority board discussed the fund Thursday. The fund would be created under the Kentucky Small Business Credit Initiative to better use $15 million allocated under the federal Small Business Jobs Act.

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OrbiMed, a leading investment firm focused on the healthcare sector, today announced the closing of its next venture capital fund, OrbiMed Private Investments V, LP, with just over $735 million in commitments, including approximately $36 million from the General Partner. Investors in the fund include some of the largest endowments, foundations, sovereign wealth funds and financial institutions globally.

Last year’s new venture capital investment was 1.2333 trillion won (US$1.1618 billion), and the amount of the new investment associations reached 747.7 billion won (US$704.3 million). This year, however, new investment associations are expected to go up significantly. 

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Commercial drones will soon populate U.S. airspace, and venture capitalists like Tim Draper are placing their bets.

Draper, an early investor in Hotmail, Skype and Baidu, is now backing DroneDeploy, a startup that's building software to direct unmanned aircraft on land mapping and the surveillance of agricultural fields. Draper even expects drones to one day bring him dinner.

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The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) launched a consultation this week aimed at determining its approach to regulating the practice, also known as crowdfunding.

The FCA will take over the regulatory role from the Office of Fair Trading next April, and this week’s consultation is one of a series intended to help it decide how to regulate a range of consumer credit services.

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Microsoft has announced a strategic cooperation agreement with three incubator organizations across Africa. The partnership will see Microsoft work with the incubation hubs to enable startups, innovators and Africa’s developer community to grow their skills and build businesses with Microsoft technologies.

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Auto interiors have come a long way from the days when FM radio was a novelty. Electronic interfaces, digital displays, and interactive technology have improved safety and comfort and added fun. That's a big leap from even a few years ago--when a Garmin GPS device, suction-cupped to the windshield, was the most sophisticated technology inside a car. Insiders say these innovations are only a hint of what's to come.

Image: www.fastcompany.com

Huib de Vriend was five years old when the great flood of 1953 hit. It was a chilly Saturday night, and the local radio stations had gone off the air at their usual hour near bedtime, just before the full force of the storm blew in. What shook young Huib more than the whistle of the wind or the thrum of the rain was the panic in his grandmother's voice. "She was yelling: 'The water is coming! The water is coming!'" he recalls. That was when he knew something was wrong. His grandmother was usually a voice of calm in the family.

Image: www.fastcoexist.com

In his famous commencement speech, Steve Jobs said:

You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something--your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

While speaking today to nearly 2,000 business leaders from around the state at the Mississippi Economic Council’s annual Hobnob event, Gov. Phil Bryant proclaimed November 2013 as Innovation Month in Mississippi.

“Mississippi’s economy grew by 2.4 percent in 2012, marking the first time the state’s economy surpassed $100 billion,” Gov. Bryant said. “This growth would not be possible without the innovative ideas and approaches that shape a business climate that is conducive to job growth and expansion.